Vengeance
by Sockjob
Summary: Before she knew it, Hinata found herself standing up, following Sasuke with her eyes. He calmly walked over to his friends, stopping at each coffin and speaking a few inaudible words. He even kissed the wood of Sakura’s coffin. HinaSasu
1. I

Note: _Italics_ = Flashbacks

Also previous chapters are being re-edited courtesy of A. E. Stover, my new beta reader. Oh and I do not own Naruto, sadly =(  


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Tsunade cleared her throat to quiet down the murmurs and cries that were coming from the large crowd gathered in the wide, open grounds of Training Area 7. She regarded the crowd with a somber look and motioned for everyone to sit down so that the funeral service could begin. The massive crowd shuffled to situate themselves in the tightly packed, enormous forest opening.

Tsunade began to wonder if this area was large enough to hold all the people here. They had already relocated the funeral sit three times to accommodate everyone on the extensive attendance list. It was the first time Tsunade had ever seen so many ninja gathered in one place. There were ninja from Sand, Snow and Wave, as well as two other Kage, the Fire Country's feudal lord, and a princess.

Tsunade's puffy, swollen eyes scanned through the sea of dismal faces. She searched through the crowd, stopping for a moment on familiar faces, until her eyes rested back down on the podium that she was standing behind. Her knees were already beginning to weaken and she wondered how long she could keep her façade in the face of such anguish. She had done nothing but drink and cry for the past few days, leaving Shizune in charge of running the village in her absence, and no one had objected. Not this time - not with all the death she was forced to face so suddenly.

When Jiraiya died, the elders had asked if she needed some time off and offered to put Danzo in her place for the time being. She refused. No matter what happened, she was still the Hokage. She needed to be strong for the village, so they could be strong as well. Instead, she only let his death affect her behind closed doors and while under the heavy influence of alcohol.

But when Kakashi walked into her office that day, his eyes mixed with both blood and tears, and he uttered the deaths of his two most beloved students, all she could do was cry. She cried loudly and openly and soon after the news of Naruto and Sakura's death spread, all of Konoha cried with her.

A hand lightly patted Tsunade's back, and she turned her head slightly to catch a glimpse of the messy red hair that belong to the Kazekage, Sabaku no Gaara.

"Have a seat, Hokage-sama. I'd like to speak first." Gaara whispered, relieving Tsunade temporarily, so she could have a seat and compose herself a bit more.

Tsunade nodded in thanks and took a seat behind Gaara, who began to speak about his experiences with Naruto and Sakura. His tone was stoic, yet his words brought fourth so much emotion that without even noticing, tears began to fall from Tsunade's face. She wiped the tears away from her cheeks, and her eyes finally fell upon the person she had been looking for - Hinata.

_Hinata ran as quickly as she could, trying to avoid the muddy puddles from the thunderstorm that was hung over the village. She cursed herself for not having the common sense to bring an umbrella. _

_The Hyuuga compound was on the other side of the village from where Naruto lived, and rain clouds had been threatening to drench the village all morning. Thankfully, Hinata was almost to Naruto's apartment when the wind and rain began to pick up. While she hustled to the sanctuary of Naruto's home, she watched as other villagers stumbled against the wind's strength. _

_Upon reaching the door, she unlocked it and slipped inside, slamming the door against the stiff current. Goosebumps formed all over Hinata's body as the cold air from inside the vacant apartment chilled her skin. She shivered slightly, wishing for Naruto's warmth as she peeled the soaked articles of clothing off her body. _

_Naruto was still away on his mission and left the small apartment empty__. Hinata's pale eyes looked over the dimly lit living room, stopping at the purple swirl that was painted on the far left wall. She smiled, reminiscing about Naruto's jubilant cry that they would start their own clan and the purple swirl would be their symbol. She wrapped her arms around herself tightly, both for comfort and warmth. The problem with dating a ninja was that you never knew if they were running late because they stopped to turn in a report, got a drink, or if they weren't making it back at all. That worry was amplified since the ninja in question was Naruto._

_Hinata stripped off the rest of her rain-soaked clothes and quickly tiptoed her way towards the bathroom. She turned on the shower, letting the stream from the hot water warm her chilled skin. _

_Ironically, Naruto kept his bathroom clean and organized, which was in complete contrast to the rest of his apartment. Hinata remembered spending countless hours cleaning the apartment after her first night spent here. __When she had asked why he didn't keep the rest of his apartment clean like he did the bathroom, he had responded, "I spend the most time there."_

_After pulling a towel from the closet, Hinata went to step into the steamy bathroom, but before she could close the door she heard __a loud, urgent rapping __at the door. Sighing, she reluctantly turned off the shower and wrapped herself in one of Naruto's bathrobes. She slowly moved through the hallway to the door, unlocking it. __Hinata was surprised to see the woman currently standing at the doorway. She opened her mouth, but the words caught in her throat__. _

_Tsunade stood in the doorway, shaking violently. Her eyes were red and her cheeks were tear-stained. Hinata's heart sank down into her stomach. Her body was frozen in place. Her eyes took in the sight of the most powerful ninja in the village breaking down in tears before her. She watched as Tsunade calmed herself down and reached into her pockets to hand Hinata a hitai-ate._

"_I'm so sorry, Hinata." Tsunade mumbled. _

Hinata stared blankly at the forest line. Her eyes followed the leaves as they swayed against the rigid wind that prevailed over the funeral procession. Her legs were stiff from sitting in the unfolded chair using her knees to prop her chin up. Her arms wrapped around her shins, and her fingers locked her body up in tight ball. Another chill from the morning air sent a chill throughout her body. She found herself welcoming the feeling, having been numb to everything for the past few days. She sat there in the fourth row from Naruto casket, but her mind was far from the funeral.

While the other shinobi talked, cried, or mourned silently to themselves, Hinata just sat in silence, not believe that the most unpredictable ninja in all of Konoha had died. The sounds of Ino and Rock Lee crying together were all that seemed to fill the fourth row. Hinata simply drowned them out, choosing not to listen to things like "they were too young to die" or how "unfair" this was. She had had enough of those thoughts on her own. She had spent more than enough time crying, in fact, since she hadn't shed a single tear during Naruto and Sakura's funeral, she was beginning to wonder if she could cry anymore.

A sudden thunder crash snapped Hinata's mind back to reality and to the funeral. She quickly looked up to the sky, fearing that the rain would come to make an already miserable event even worse. There was overcast, but the clouds didn't look ready for a downpour just yet. The temporary lapse into realism brought on by the thunder queued her other senses in on the fact that something in the funeral had changed. The area had gone completely still, and considering the size of the training ground along with the amount of people there, that was no small task.

Hinata turned her head over to Ino, who had been crying loudly just a moment ago. Ino's eyes were locked on something that was behind them both. Actually, everyone had their heads turned, eyes fixed on something in the distance. Some looked angry, and others astonished. All the attention had dragged away from the two dead ninja at the front to something situated at the back.

Hinata quickly spun her head to see what all the commotion was about. Her eyes watched the figure that walked slowly down the aisle. The figure's eyes were locked on the two caskets in the front, never wavering to the masses of stares he was getting in return. His footsteps were soft, but in the dead silence of the area, the only sound that could be heard was the grass crunching under his feet.

Uchiha Sasuke made his way up from the back of the funeral processional. His unexpected arrival launched an assault of angry whispers and murderous stares, but the absolute distain that Sasuke held for the Leaf village fended off the deadly spikes of there killer intent like a skilled fighter. He moved down the **aisle**, his eye unwavering from his goal, his reason for ever stepping foot back into the village that stole his family from him.

Uchiha Sasuke moved towards Naruto and Sakura's coffins. As Sasuke passed the forth row, he turned his attention away from his former teammates to Hinata. He had stopped walking and chose to stand there, his gaze fixed upon the girl he knew as Naruto's fiancé.

His intense stare made Hinata nervous, so much so that her eyes would only meet his for a short time before adverting them to the see people behind watching the exchange. Hinata knew why Sasuke was there in front of her. This was his wordless "I'm sorry for your loss."

When Naruto had originally proposed to Hinata, the first thing he had told her was that he needed to tell his brother. When she had questioned him about it, he explained the past between he and Sasuke. Naruto told her that although Sasuke left the village, he had made a deal with Naruto -- Naruto would stop chasing him all over the five nations, he would stop running and remain close enough to keep in contact. Sasuke told Naruto about Konoha's plot to kill his clan and that he would never return to the village that killed his parents. After that, Naruto never asked him too.

Just as quickly as it began, Hinata and Sasuke's silent exchange ended when Sasuke turned from her and moved toward the two caskets. Before she knew it, Hinata found herself standing up, following Sasuke with her eyes. He solemnly walked over to his friends, stopping at each coffin and speaking a few inaudible words. He even kissed the wood of Sakura's coffin. He was paying his last respects, saying goodbye to the two people he had left in the world.

Hinata found her heart willing her to move. She could hear it screaming, saying that she should be up there too, mourning for the man she loved and the woman that had become like family to her, but her body would not follow. Instead, all she could do watch.

She watched as Sasuke approached the stage that was filled with some of the most influential people in the entire land. Even as he stood in front of the stage, with everyone watching him, he kept his eyes on Naruto and Sakura. His eyes glistened with tears that threatened to fall, but his pride kept them at bay. He ignored the hundreds of eyes that were upon him as he slowly pulled out the katana that he held on his back. Sasuke drove his sword into the podium, reducing it to splinters.

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Hinata turned her eyes away from the photo of Naruto that was in her hand and looked out her bedroom window. She could see her tear-stained face through the reflection in the glass, and the moon's height in the night sky. It made her wonder just how long she had been sitting there, staring at Naruto's picture and crying. The digital clock by their bed said that it was 11:30, and that meant she had been sitting in that very spot for the past two hours

Hinata yawned and stretched her legs. She walked around the dark, empty apartment, not bothering to turn on any of the lights. What did she need them for? Nothing had changed since the last time she was there. No one would be coming around to dirty the place up anymore than it already was.

Her stroll through the dark room was short lived, ending in the kitchen where she painfully remembered that she had not eaten anything in at last two days. Hinata opened the cabinets to realize that Naruto had not gone shopping before his last mission. She sighed and closed them quietly. She quickly threw on a pair of jeans and a sweat shirt and headed to the door. She reached for doorknob and nearly jumped out of her skin when there was a soft knock against the wood.

"Otou-san?!" Hinata opened the door, surprised to see her father, Hyuuga, Hiashi, standing in front of the doorway. "W-What are you doing here?" Hinata asked as she stared at her father, amazed that he even knew where Naruto's apartment was.

Without so much as a "Hello" Hiashi raised his hands up to show the two bags full of warm food.

"I-I-" Hinata started off, unable to take her eyes off from her father's hands. Suddenly her father's presence was less confusing as it was a blessing. In truth, she had been dreading going out in public. Before Naruto's last mission, he had managed to tell everyone in the village who would listen that they were getting married. Now, whenever she was on public people, would ask her how she was doing. Having to turn down help constantly was exhausting. She would have preferred to just be left alone at this point so she could cope in peace.

"Has living here for less than a year robbed you of your manners, or were you going to invite me into your home, Hinata?" Hiashi asked. Hinata gave a soft smile.

"Oh! Please come inside, Otou-san!" Hinata quickly blurted out as she ushered the older man inside Naruto's apartment.

Her father laughed lightly at his nervous daughter. Things between the two of them had become so different after her engagement to Naruto. She remembered the day Naruto marched into the Hyuuga compound, determined to get Hiashi's blessing.

"_I will not have my daughter marrying the likes of you!" Hiashi yelled, "Get out of my sight, Uzumaki!"_

"_B-B-But Otou-sama!" Hinata protested, tears running down her face._

"_Enough, Hinata!, I said—" Hiashi was cut off by Naruto's fist hitting his jaw._

_She remembered watching as Naruto and Hiashi fight a heated battle in the middle of the Hyuuga compound. Hiashi had defeated Naruto, but not before taking a Rasengan to his left side. Both men had to be rushed to the hospital._

_Once Hiashi was released, he freely gave his blessing and even offered to hold the wedding in the Hyuga mansion. When Hinata questioned him about it, Hiashi told her that while in the hospital Naruto admitted to him that once he was released, he would ask Hiashi again and again, and keep fighting until Hiashi changed his mind._

"_He said he would kick the ass of anyone who made you cry." Hiashi said with a slight smile._

Of course not soon after, Naruto's lineage was announced to the public, and Hiashi was more than happy to have his first born daughter marrying the Fourth Hokage's only son.

"Let me turn on the lights," Hinata said as she stumbled around the living room. Finally, after tripping over an old pair of Naruto's sandals, Hinata turned on the lights and ushered Hiashi into the kitchen.

They both ate without saying a word to each other. Although Hinata was used to eating in her father's presence quietly, this occasion was different. There was no tension between them. Their silence was mutually shared, neither feeling uncomfortable in the others presence.

After swallowing the last of his meal, Hiashi broke the silence between them, "I wanted to know what you are going to do now." he said bluntly, being straight to the point like he always was.

"Excuse me?" Hinata asked her father.

"Well now that Uzumaki … Naruto is gone what are you going to do?" Hiashi asked again, "Are you going to take some time off from being a ninja or do you think you can handle it?" Hiashi took another sip of his soup while he waited for Hinata's answer. He asked her so calmly, but she could tell what he was really looking for.

"I-I was thinking of coming back to the compound." Hinata mumbled out. She did not need to look up to see Hiashi's reaction. She could feel his indignant gaze upon the top of her head, like it had been so many times before. "It's . . . it's just that…" Her words trailed off. She didn't even know what she wanted to say anymore. She was stuttering again and she hadn't done that in months. She hadn't lost a chance to stare at her father in the eye for months. Most importantly, she hadn't lived under her father's roof since her engagement.

It was then that she could feel her self confidence draining out of body. Without Naruto's strength, she was regressing back to the stuttering, pathetic, Hinata of old.

She really didn't want to go back to the Hyuuga compound, but there was no way that staying in the apartment that she shared with her dead fiancé was healthy for her emotional state.

Nevertheless, it didn't matter, "No." Hiashi stated calmly. Hinata look up to stare at her father in disbelief. The look of aggravation melted from her father's face and was replaced with a somber look.

"When your mother died, I was so distraught from loosing her that your uncle, Hizashi, had to step up as clan head till I was over it. He told me something then that I will tell you now. Just because the ones you love die, does not mean that you should stop living as well." Hiashi said as he stood up from the small kitchen table and surveyed the small apartment.

"Like it or not, this is your home now." Hiashi walked back over to Hinata and gave her a light pat on her back before heading over to the door. "Hinata, these past few years have changed you into a daughter that a father can be proud of. I know most of what you have become is thanks to Naruto.

Now that's he's gone, do not stop being a woman that I am proud to call my daughter." Hiashi said as he opened the front door to Hinata's apartment and walked out.

The door snapped shut quietly and once again the emptiness of the apartment became prevalent to Hinata. She sighed loudly, filling the space with some sound. Her father was right. This was her place. Naruto had told her countless times that since she was soon going to be his wife everything he had was theirs. Now that he was gone, everything he once had was now hers, and those thoughts made her feel even lonelier.

She needed to get out of the apartment. Everything in the apartment reminded her of Naruto, and it was driving her crazy. Hinata jumped up from the kitchen chair and quickly put on her shoes. She grabbed the apartment key and a jacket from the closet, and she was out the door.

Hinata stared intently at the ground as she walked the dark streets of the leaf village. The streets were mostly empty except for the few ninja that were on patrol and late night shop owners that were closing up. She traveled aimlessly through the village, letting her feet Training Area 7. Her eyes rolled over the familiar clearing. Just a few hours ago she had been there along with thousand of other people, gathered in collective bereavement over Naruto and Sakura.

The encompassing darkness from the surrounding trees gave Hinata an odd sense of security that she hadn't felt all day. She bent down to take her sandals off, letting the cool, lush green grass give her mind a comfort she hadn't experienced all day. She closed her eyes, trying to find some relaxation in such a stressful time. Tsunade wanted her to come by the Hokage tower tomorrow. She presumed it was to check up her, and if it was, she could really go without another person asking how she was holding up.

Hinata's thoughts took her back to the question that had been nagging at her mind since her father left the apartment. What was she going to do now? Maybe she needed some time off from being a ninja. She could do some traveling, take a vacation, or do something that normal people do that gave them happiness. She sighed tiredly to herself. She would have to sleep on it and just see what happens tomorrow.

Hinata was taken from her thoughts when she noticed a shadowy figure move from the corner of her eye. Suddenly, the dark secluded area didn't seem so much like a blessing anymore. The figure began to advance toward her, his features remained hidden under the blanketed darkness from the forest lines overcast. Hinata's body tensed with anxiety. She wasn't afraid. Even with all that had happened, she was still a ninja and was more than capable of handling herself. She was more surprised that someone had been there in the clearing the entire time, and she had not noticed them at all.

After a few more steps in her direction, Hinata found herself once again staring blankly in the eyes of none other than Uchiha Sasuke.

He walked over to Hinata, keeping his eyes on hers. The nervousness she felt at the funeral a few hours ago came slithering back as Hinata suddenly found it hard to keep eye-to-eye contact with Naruto's self-proclaimed brother. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, occasionally looking down at the ground. Each time she looked back up to face the silent Uchiha, he would be closer and closer to her. When she lifted her eyes to meet his for the fourth time, he was right in front of her.

"Sasuke-san. I-I-" Hinata started. Inwardly she cursed her lack of control as her words stammered due to her nervousness.

"Hinata…" he began. Hinata's eyes met his, and she noticed the tear streaks that were illuminated against his pale skin. She tried to hide her surprise, but Sasuke caught the shocked look upon her face.

"Why didn't you cry for Naruto at the funeral?" Sasuke asked. He broke the gaze the two shared as he turned back towards the direction of the memorial stone. No doubt, that was where he had been crying over Naruto and Sakura. He quickly wiped his face then turn back to Hinata, his stern gaze had returned as he silently demanded the answer to his question.

"W-W-Well…I…I really don't know." Hinata stammered out. Sasuke's only response was a loud snort.

Feeling the sudden need to defend her inaction she blurted out, "I guess I've cried so much these past few days that… I just couldn't cry anymore." Hinata said, now suddenly finding it easier to look Sasuke in the eye.

Sasuke's entire body seem to relax from Hinata's confession and she mildly wondered what he would have done if he didn't like the answer she gave him.

"Yeah," Sasuke said quietly. The two shared another long moment of silence. Hinata stared out towards the direction of the memorial stone while Sasuke just let his eyes trail along the ground. Another chilling wind rushed past the two, making Hinata jump from the sudden burst of cold air.

"You should go back home." Sasuke said in a low voice. Not waiting for an answer, nor voicing his request to walk her back home, Sasuke began to walk back to the village. Hinata watched him curiously as he began to walk away from her. Her past experiences with the last surviving Uchiha were always short and usually chaperoned by Naruto. They had never spoken to each other alone before, but much to Hinata's surprise, Sasuke Uchiha was somewhat pleasant.

Hinata broke out of her contemplation of Sasuke when she noticed that he had stopped walking away and had his head turned slightly to the right. She could see him staring at her out of the corner of his eye. She briefly wondered if he sensed something dangerous behind the pitch black tree line before the translation of his actions became clear. Her eyes widen in surprise. There was no danger, he had done more than just remark that she should return home. He had invited to escort her there. She quickly turned around and shuffled over to his side. She smiled and nodded as they both continued walking in silence.

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A/N: Many thanks to A. E. Stover for the incredible amount of work he has done on both my previous and current releases.


	2. II

The next morning had come. The soothing warmth of the sun heated Hinata's bare skin. The light's rays bombarded her eyelids, urging her to wake and to face yet another day. Surrendering, she sleepily pondered what time it was as she peeked her eyes open in the direction of Naruto's alarm clock.

It was ten minutes past ten o'clock, and Hinata admonished herself inwardly for oversleeping. Between her and Naruto, Hinata had always been the early bird, beginning the day just after the sun rose. Naruto would usually snore the first two hours of the morning, waking only to the smell of his breakfast, usually a bowl of ramen. Hinata lazily dragged herself out of the bed and wrap herself in a blanket. She quickly tiptoed to the bathroom as she recalled last night's walk home with Sasuke.

Sasuke had remained completely silent on their trip back to Naruto's apartment. The only thing that was spoken between them was a polite goodbye before Sasuke disappeared into the night, leaving her alone with nothing but her thoughts.

Her quiet contemplation led to the decision that she needed some time off from being a ninja. She had seen many people die, but she had never known what it felt like to lose someone special. Not until now.

Even when her mother died, she was too young to really grasp the loss, unlike her father, so she was never affected by it. Now that Naruto was gone, Hinata understood her father's pain and the loss of his ambition to do even the most mundane activities. Unlike Hiashi, however, Hinata did not have someone to carry out missions or continue her life for her while she coped with her loss. No, she would have to take some time for herself.

Hinata stared at herself in the bathroom mirror as she tried to imagine how the Hokage was going to react. Surely Tsunade, who was just as close to Naruto as Hinata was, would be understanding. Hinata's plight for a leave of absence wasn't that outrageous. Still, the fear that Tsunade would consider her weak for not being able to cope while maintaining her duties to the village lingered in the forefront of Hinata's mind. Trying not to give the upcoming exchange anymore thought, Hinata slid on her normal ninja attire and headed for the door.

Hinata walked down the busy streets of the leaf village returning greetings to anyone that recognized her. She rounded a corner of one of the main streets and was surprised to see a small crowd gathered out in front of the gates of the Uchiha compound.

"What's going—" Hinata started, her question was quickly answered before she could even finish by the large explosion that rattled the ground around the compound.

"What the hell was that?" One of the villagers screamed out. The second explosion caused even more curious onlookers to gather. Hinata had to push her way through the crowd until she stood between the villagers and the large wooden doors of the Uchiha complex entrance.

"Are we in danger?" A frightened villager asked. Hinata had no idea, but she assumed that they weren't or there would have been other ninjas here by now. She activated her Byakugan to scan the supposedly empty complex. She was caught by surprise when her pale eyes met the crimson pools of Sasuke's Sharingan looking back at her. She gasped, quickly deactivating her Byakugan, a little embarrassed to be caught spying on the missing nin. Hinata swiftly turned towards the crowd of people still trying to get a glimpse at what was going on when a firm hand grasped her shoulder, pulling her inside the complex.

"Come in." Sasuke's voice cut through the now silent crowd. Before Hinata could utter a reply, she was already trapped behind the closing entrance doors.

"O-Ok," Hinata said belatedly. Her consent was more given to the air than Sasuke, who hadn't asked her to enter but merely told her to. The large oak doors closed, cutting off the curious onlookers from the village.

Once more, Hinata found herself walking silently next to Naruto's brother for the second time in less than twenty-four hours. Without asking for an explanation from Hinata about why she was spying on him, Sasuke walked back to the spot where he had been earlier. The entire area looked like a battlefield.

Dismembered parts from destroyed training dummies littered the grounds. There were kunai and shrunken everywhere. They were all over the grounds, the walls, and many wedged in vital points of the still standing training dolls. Craters left portions missing out of some of the buildings. What was left of the iron beams and concrete block struggled to keep from collapsing.

"Oh my god. Wh-What happened here?" Hinata asked as the tips of her fingers ran along the jagged edge of one of the walls that had been penetrated. She turned towards Sasuke who seemed completely unaffected that parts of his former home had been brutally demolished.

"Grieving" Sasuke said coolly. He walked over to one of the training dummies and pulled his katana out from its wooden neck, making Hinata cringed as her mind exchanged the dummy for a real person who would have undoubtedly died from the wound. As he put the sword back into the hilt that was attached to his side, a wave of understanding washed over Hinata. This destruction was Sasuke's doing. This was how he grieved for his loved ones.

"Was there a reason you were spying on me?" Sasuke's blunt question cut through Hinata's mental trail-off, bringing her back to reality and causing her cheeks to tinge a light shade of pink at his accusation.

"I-I wasn't spying. There was an explosion. Then I saw the crowd and wanted to…" Hinata let her sentence die. Sasuke wasn't even paying attention to her anyway. She looked over into the direction that held Sasuke's interest and realized that he hadn't even asked her the question in the first place. A single ANBU stood on top of one of the buildings that were still standing.

"The Hokage wishes to see you." The ANBU member said curtly then vanished in a puff of smoke. Sasuke snorted callously and began to walk towards the gate once more. Again Hinata found herself quietly looking at Sasuke's back as he paused once more in his own 'are you coming?' stance. She followed him out of the complex, and he nodded her farewell.

It took Hinata about an hour before she reached the Hokage tower. She walked up the stairs ignoring the sad looks and solemn faces that passed her by. It seems that Tsunade-sama's pain had spread throughout the tower. It seemed the only beacon of light in the entire building was Shizune who greeted Hinata with a bright hello when the crossed each other in the hallway.

"Hinata, it's good to see you! How is everything?" Shizune asked with a bright smile.

"G-Good. Is Tsunade-sama in her office?" Hinata asked.

"Yes, but be careful -- she's in a foul mood." Shizune warned. "It seems she is still in there with the Uchiha boy. That boy must have a death wish to anger Tsunade-sama the way he has. She's already torn down nearly half of her office! It seems now, the two are in a screaming match." Shizune said in a hushed voice.

Hinata looked at Shizune in a confused manner. "What?" Hinata asked.

"What were you doing at the Uchiha compound?" Shizune asked accusingly. Shizune eyed Hinata pryingly, causing Hinata to blush slightly at the allegation .

"T-There was an explosion and I went to check—" Hinata paused, confused by Shizune's insinuation. "How did you know I was there?" Hinata asked.

"Who do you think the ANBU member was?" Shizune said with a slight smile. Clearly she was referring to Neji. The two had been seeing a lot of each other before the funeral. The look of school girl passion that masqueraded all over Shizune's face was more than enough information that Neji was the one that delivered the message. A sudden crash and the booming voice of Tsunade broke the awkward moment between the two, and Shizune quickly continued on her way out of the tower and away from the Hokage's warpath.

The dimly lit stairwell leading to the Hokage's office rumbled slightly, unsettling the dust from the ceiling above. Hinata moved cautiously, unsure if the whole building was about the collapse from underneath her. Clearly Tsunade and Sasuke were still up in her office arguing. That much could be told both by the buildings rattle that had been instigated by Tsunade's fury and by quickened footsteps of everyone that had been near the office and was now hurrying to vacate the Hokage building. Whatever the two were arguing about, it must have been big Hinata mused. After a few more moments of unsteady ascension, Hinata finally reached the intimidating oak doors of the Hokage's office.

Standing face to face with the door, Hinata understood everyone's rush to abandon the tower. Shizune's warning of Tsunade's rare fit of rage was an understatement. The hallway had been obliterated, furniture that once sat neatly inside Tsunade's office was now scattered in a broken heap along the hallway floor. The scene was worst than Sasuke's compound, and off-handedly Hinata contemplated if all her ninja companions used violence to help them grieve the loss of a loved one.

"Like I have said before, I have had several other ninja request the same mission. I will tell you the same thing I told Shikamaru, the same thing I told Ino and Chouji, the same thing I told Kakashi! I will not allow any ninja from this village to investigate the Akatsuki simply for a chance at revenge!" Tsunade shouted. Even her voice made the windows behind her quiver. It was obvious she was still emotional after the loss of both Sakura and Naruto. Tsunade's puffy red eyes had become a permanent addition to her face despite the henge she used to conceal her true age. Both Tsunade and Sasuke stood standing face to face with each other in the middle of the room. Her balled fist and heavy breathing were more than enough to answer the what-the-hell-happened-here question that sat quietly on the tip of Hinata's tongue.

"I am not a Ninja of this village," Sasuke said, advancing towards Tsunade, who in turned clenched her fists hard enough to draw blood from her palms. "I do not take orders from you," Sasuke seethed out, yet again taking another step forward. "I'm not asking you if can I go hunt down and kill Sakura and Naruto's murderer. I'm telling you I am. I will avenge them with or without the help of the Leaf."

Sasuke's words froze Hinata in place. She could do nothing but listen to Naruto's brother as he continued, "I want their names Tsunade. I want—"

Sasuke's words were cut off as he was launched from the ground into the east wall. Tsunade was done listening. Sasuke's body slammed through the wall, leaving a small crater in the mortar and brick that was hidden beneath it. Slowly he got up and faced Tsunade. The look of rage on his face was masked from the dust and debris that had yet to settle, but his eyes were clearly visible. His Sharingan glowed with anger, causing the breath to flee Hinata's lungs in fear.

"How dare you," Tsunade seethed. Hinata's eyes whipped over to see the fuming Hokage, her anger overshadowing Sasuke's rage.

"If you hadn't deserted this village, they wouldn't have died." Tsunade whispered as she slowly gripped the side of her desk, one of the last things in the office still standing. "If you had been there…" she trailed lifting the desk off the ground, but immediately losing her resolve to hurl it at the young ninja. Sasuke's demeanor had changed with Tsunade's last words. He hung his head down as he moved across the room and picked up a chair to sit on.

"They would still be alive. I know." Sasuke said in a hushed voice. The tension between the two melted away and was instantly replaced with sorrow. Hinata watched as the two took seats on whatever looked sturdy enough to handle their weight. "I need his name, Hokage-sama." Sasuke continued in an almost pleading voice.

The room filled with an anxious silence as Tsunade thought about her next words. From the corner of her eye Tsunade caught a glimpse of Hinata who was too busy staring at Sasuke. Her eyes scanned over the kunoichi who had become hypnotized by Sasuke's plight. Hinata's grip tightened around the hitai-ate in her hands. She twisted the cloth around tightly, waiting for the next words to be spoken from either Tsunade or Sasuke. Tsunade could see that the young man's wish to avenge both he and Hinata's lovers was not just his, but Hinata's as well even if she would never say it.

"Pein." Tsunade said, looking at Hinata, who was now staring back at her. "His name is Pein. He is the leader of the Akatsuki." Sasuke sat for a moment longer as the info sank in before he stood up to leave.

"Wait," Tsunade said as she turned to her desk and pulled out a Konoha hitai-ate.

Sasuke shook his head in refusal, "I am no longer a ninja of this village—" Sasuke began, but he was cut off once more. Tsunade was in his face staring at the slightly taller Uchiha.

"Let me tell you something boy. You think this is your fight? You think the deaths of two of Konoha's precious people go ignored from everyone here? I have denied every request from every ninja in your generation who has demanded vengeance against Pein while fighting back the urge to hunt him down myself. I listened to you when you came into my office, like this village owes you something because your parents we killed by a previous Hokage's orders, and demanded information like you should be privileged to it. You do not get to kill Pein for your own selfishness. You will wear this head band, her headband because you will avenge Sakura and Naruto for all of us." Tsunade finished, leaving both Sasuke and Hinata speechless.

Sasuke looked down at the hitai-ate. Sakura had been dead for nearly a week now, yet the faint scent of lavender still filled Sasuke's nostrils. It was her scent. He huffed out a breath and wrapped the hitai-ate around his forehead. After all this was Sakura's hitai-ate, and because of that, he would proudly wear the Leaf's headband again. Even he could see the truth in Tsunade's words. He may not be a Konoha ninja anymore but even this village deserved retribution. He stood up and headed for the door and was slightly surprised that he had not noticed that Hinata was standing behind him. He glanced down to meet the eyes of the young girl. She didn't say anything to him and he didn't say anything back. After a brief moment he tore his gaze away from Hinata's and walked out of the Hokage's office.

The quiet exchange between her and Sasuke left Hinata's mind in such a haze that when Tsunade questioned her about her reason for being there, she had completely forgotten the reason herself.

"Um, I-I…" Hinata began. The fog created by Sasuke and Tsunade's exchange had been lifted and now Hinata remembered why she had made this trip to the Hokage's office in the first place. However, now Hinata found herself fighting the urge to walk right out of the Hokage's office and back to Sasuke, who was actually going to do find Naruto and Sakura's killer.

"Hinata-san?" Tsunade asked concerned when Hinata's sentence trailed off.

"Why him?" Hinata blurted out. The question that had escaped Hinata's mind, shocking both Tsunade and herself as it hit their ears.

"Why him alone? Why not a team, or just Kakashi-sensei, or Neji-kun? Why just him?" She continued. Their argument and Tsunade's words had stirred something inside of Hinata. Never had she questioned a decision that the Hokage made, but after hearing that so many of Konoha's shinobi wanted revenge against the Akatsuki she needed to know why Tsunade picked Uchiha, Sasuke.

There was a brief silence in the room as Tsunade thought about her answer. "He's more like Naruto than he thinks." Tsunade said as she took a seat on her battered desk.

"I'm sorry, Hokage-sama, but I do not understand." Hinata replied, confused by the revelation.

"Naruto was someone that would travel to the ends of the earth for a friend because that what was most important to him." Tsunade continued. Her face brightened as memories of Naruto filled her mind. "He lived his life for his friends. Helping them was all he knew."

"Sasuke lives his life seeking revenge. That was all he knew. Once his brother, Itachi, is dead, he would be forced to try and find a new life, one that didn't revolve around vengeance. Now that his new loved ones are taken from him again, he will do what ever it takes to get revenge on who ever is responsible." Tsunade huffed out loudly as she surveyed the disaster area that used to be her office. "Besides, I don't think this office would be able to take anymore of a beating if I had kept saying no."

Outside of the Hokage tower, Hinata stood looking over in the direction of the Uchiha compound. What Tsunade said about Sasuke's life laid heavily on her mind. What did she live her life for? Naruto lived to protect everyone in the village, and Sakura lived for same thing. Had she been living to protect the village? Or was it just to protect Naruto? And now that he was gone, what now?

Every thought prompted her with more questions as Hinata meandered though the village streets. Her eyes inattentively scanning passed the homes and shops that she walked by. A sense of familiarity pulled Hinata back to reality. She found herself standing once again in front of the Uchiha gates just as the door creaked itself open.

Uchiha, Sasuke was just as surprised to see Hinata standing in front of his home as she was to be there. Both looked at each other awkwardly for a moment before Sasuke spoke, "What do you want?" He asked a little too harshly.

Hinata's hands clenched into tight balls as a fit of nervousness struck her. She dropped her mouth to speak, but suddenly found the words impossible to say. "I-I-I…" she stammered out, receiving a look of indignation from the short tempered Uchiha. Apparently not even Naruto's widowed fiancée was spared from his complete lack of patience. His stern "why the fuck are you bothering me" gaze left Hinata unhinged as she took a step back from the door.

Truthfully, Hinata had no idea why she was there. Her mind raced as she desperately searched for an answer to Sasuke's question. She remembered her earlier visit to the Uchiha compound. The caved in walls and the demolished dummies came to the forefront of her mind then. What had he called it? "G-G-Grieving…" she mumbled aloud.

Another painful silence passed as Sasuke stood glaring at Hinata. After what felt like an hour Sasuke turned around and walked back into his compound. Hinata imagined a big "follow me" painted on Sasuke's back as she trailed behind him. They both walked in silence as always. Hinata fumbled with her inner thoughts while Sasuke lead her back to where he had been before. The shock of seeing a war zone in the back of the Uchiha compound had dissipated, so this time Hinata continued to only partially mind her surroundings as she manically tried to understand why she was here in the first place.

Grieving. That's what she had told Sasuke. The evening sun had painted the destroyed area a dark orange, casting long menacing-looking shadows over the ground. The bleak, slightly scary surroundings coupled with Sasuke less-than-comforting company was not the ideal grieving site that Hinata had imagined for herself. Sobbing alone in the pitch black bedroom of Naruto's apartment was looking better and better as the seconds of nervous waiting dawdled pass.

"You can use whatever you like," Sasuke said as he lazily looked around for a surviving training dummy. "There are extra weapons, targets, and training dolls in the shed over there." He continued as he pointed over to a two story, grey colored building. The distinctive building was one of two structures that had not felt the blunt end of Sasuke's wrath as they were the only two still standing in relatively good condition.

"I'm sure you can let yourself out, but if you get lost, I am going to the other end of the compound…" Sasuke's voice trailed off as he turned and began to walk away.

A few minutes passed as Hinata just sat there in the open space of the Uchiha compound. She rested her chin on the balls of her fist as she wondered what it was she was supposed to do here.

Hinata smiled as the blades of grass underneath her legs tickled her skin and reminded her of the summer afternoon spent in the grassy open area above the Hokage monument with Naruto.

Reaching into her shuriken holster, Hinata pulled out one of her kunai, "What the hell…" she whispered to herself as she got back up to her feet and into her fighting stance. She could hear the thunderous explosion as Sasuke destroyed another building. It reminded her that many of the other Konoha ninja were venting their frustrations in a similar way.

She focused on the head of the training dummy that was in front of her. The straw man was missing the lower half of his body, courtesy of Sasuke. Hinata took a few steps forward before throwing the kunai as hard as she could to the dummy, splitting his forehead in two upon impact. Barely winded, Hinata took in a deep breathe, surprised at how good it felt to split the dummy's head open.

Sasuke sucked in deep breaths as he struggled to keep his balance against one of the splintered tree trunks that were scattered across the field. He knew the effects of chakra drainage were setting in. His limbs felt like lead and his body was barely able to support itself. He lifted his heavy left arm to his face, wiping away the sweat that threatened to blur his eyesight and distort the target in front of him.

"Just two more," He encouraged himself between deep breaths. The new area Sasuke had trashed was just as decimated as the previous. A number of training dummies stilled smoldered from the flames of his last fireball. Two building lay reduced to rubble and several trees had been distorted to gnarled, blacked ruins. Sasuke surveyed his handy work as he tried to control his labored breathing. He was exhausted, but that was the plan. In his exhaustion he couldn't feel any pain beyond his own body.

He looked to his right at the two dummies that were left standing, deciding that he would spare those two for the day. Besides, he needed to go a check up on Hinata. It had been really quiet over in that direction, but Sasuke could still sense her in the compound. He wondered if she had even hit anything or if she just stood there looking at the dummies, stupefied like she had been when he left her.

A small smirk rose from the corners of Sasuke's mouth as he took in the sight of the equally exhausted Hinata removing a shuriken from the head of one of the freshly positioned training dummies. Her Byakugan was still active, evident from the protruding veins that stemmed from her eyes and trailed back to her hairline. She breathed heavily as she inched back a few feet from the training doll before she embedded two new kunai and the same shuriken back into the head of the defenseless dummy. Hinata's exhausted frame slouched over as her throwing hand hung out in front of her long after the shuriken nailed its target.

"I think that's enough for the day." Sasuke remarked coolly as he walked over to one of the training dummies and removed Hinata's weapons from its vital points.

Hinata doubled over as she quickly tried to catch enough breath to speak, "I'm… sorry for staying for so long. I was just practicing and lost track…" She trailed off, deciding it was more important to keep breathing than to speak.

Sasuke said nothing at first he just continued his leisurely walk around the target dummies removing what was Hinata's weapons. Once he had finished he presented all shuriken and kunai to Hinata who had taken a seat on the ground. Sasuke looked over towards the guard walls around the Uchiha complex as if someone was watching him, then once satisfied that there was no one there he took a seat down on the ground next to Hinata.

As if the close proximity between the two of them wasn't enough to make Hinata feel uneasy, what happen after Sasuke had sat down was enough to knock the wind right out of her. "When I'm out here, training… I can clear my mind sort of," Sasuke said.

Hinata fought hard to control the flabbergasted look on her face. Was he talking to her? Hinata opened her mouth to say something, but quickly cut herself off as she caught a glimpse of the equally shocked Sasuke who was looking as if she had committed a crime simply by listening.

"Never mind," He muttered as he stood up on his feet. Hinata followed suit, quickly rising to her feet as well. Seemed like the bonding was over, and she had overstayed her welcome. Hinata gathered her things and began to walk away before Sasuke voice called out to her again.

"Fight me." He simply said as if his invitation was how he departed with all his house guest.

"What?! Why?!" Hinata asked looking around to make sure that Sasuke was in fact talking to her.

Already, he had removed the purple rope-belt from his waist, "It'll help. When you're fighting someone else, you have to focus on them and nothing else. Trust me." He said as he stood in a fighting stance.

"I don't really want—" Hinata began but he words were cut off as Sasuke didn't wait for an answer. He had already advanced towards her, sending his left palm upwards towards her chin. Hinata narrowly dodged out of the way of his warning shot. She knew the next one would not be so kind. And she was right. Hinata clumsily blocked his next three attacks, each one picking up speed against the pervious. It wasn't until after Hinata tripped over her own foot did Sasuke grab her to catch her from falling.

"T-Thank—"Hinata's next words, as well as the wind was kicked out of her as Sasuke's left knee slammed against Hinata's chest.

"Stop messing around and fight back." Sasuke commanded.

"I-I don't really want to fight you…" Hinata said as she struggled to catch her breath again.

"I'm fighting, you're on the ground." Sasuke replied.

His remark stung, and when he attempted to kick the crouched kunoichi, Sasuke received a stiff elbow to his chin. Staggering back few steps to regain his composure, Sasuke returned his focus back to Hinata who stood ready to attack again.

"Good, finally." Sasuke said as his lips curved into smirk.

Although Sasuke had finally gotten Hinata to fight him somewhat seriously, the fight between the two was disappointedly one sided. Hinata sent strike after strike towards Sasuke who was now simply parrying them off with the hilt of sword. "Pathetic, did you and the idiot ever train together?" Sasuke asked.

Every so often, with any blocked, dodged, or parried attack Sasuke gave Hinata his own little words of motivation. Although in the back of his mind, he had felt remorse about insulting Naruto's fighting ability, but the purpose of the insults were served. Each time Hinata's attacks became faster and deadlier as her anger towards Sasuke rose.

"Don't you dare insult Naruto-kun!" Hinata yelled out as she swiftly sent a kick to Sasuke's stomach.

Barely finding the time to block, Sasuke used the sheath of his katana to bare the brunt of Hinata's attack. Although Sasuke successfully blocked, her forceful kick still sent his body skidding backwards.

"I think that was the first real attack you've done all day," Sasuke said as he pressed his hand to his own chest.

"Well I thought you were… I didn't want to hurt you." Hinata said apologetically.

Sasuke stared at her incredulously. Anger rose up inside him as well. "You hurt me? You can barely hit me! No wonder Naruto got himself killed! All of you act like you don't have what it takes to do what's necessary when—" that was all Sasuke could get out before he had to stop talking and dodge the speeding kunai that was aimed for his face.

Hinata had missed, but barely. She stood there glaring down at the ground. Sasuke had done more than make her angry. For the first time ever Sasuke could feel a deathly killer intent emanating from Hinata. The rare occurrence would have to be observed later however as the sound of a faint crackle cause Sasuke to turn around just as the last bits of the exploding tag burned.

Quickly dashing to his right, Sasuke struggled to stay just inches ahead of the explosion that followed. He was both shocked and impressed. Even in her livid anger, she still managed to place an exploding tag on the kunai.

"Hakke…" Sasuke's eyes widen at Hinata voice from behind him. She had quickly moved behind his body that was suspended helplessly in mid air.

"…Rokujuuyon Shou!" Hinata finished as her hands flew at blinding speed towards Sasuke's tenketsu.

Hinata's first two strikes connected, but to her surprise Sasuke had already replaced his real body with a Kawarimi. The log fell to the ground after being struck be Hinata's two fingers. She dully watched at the heavy wood bounced and rolled before coming to a complete stop.

It was then that the real Sasuke appeared behind her, thrusting his open palm into her back. A smile of victory grew of Sasuke's face. He was still surprised that Hinata had become somewhat of a challenge towards the end. "Good work—" Sasuke began, but once more he was caught by surprise as the Hinata in front of him popped into thin air.

"A Kage Bunshin?" He asked himself aloud.

"Hakke Rokujuuyon Shou!" The real Hinata called out from the shocked, defenseless Sasuke.

Hinata excitedly rushed towards Sasuke. She had him now, he had fallen for her trap flawlessly and now he was going to pay for underestimating her. Hinata pulled her arm back in preparation for landing her first strike on Sasuke's left side. In the spilt second that she looked in his eyes she saw the spinning black tomes amid the deep red sea of the Mangekyou Sharingan.

"Tsukuyomi."


	3. III

Chapter 3

The morning sun inched over the stone heads of the Hokage monument, illuminating the already busy streets of the village. Shop keepers opened their doors for business while farmers and laborers shuffled the city streets, en route to their destined work areas. Tsunade watched as the village began to come alive. Her amber eyes dully watched over the people she had sworn to protect with her life.

"Hokage-sama?" An uneasy voice from behind her called out. She turned around to continue her conversation, taking a seat back in her new desk chair.

"Yes, sorry to keep you waiting, Kakashi." She apologized. Kakashi simply shrugged his slumped shoulders as he silently took a seat in front of the Hokage's desk. The past few days had not been kind to him. His usual laid back demeanor had changed and was now replaced with an "old man's . His only visible eye reeked of sleepless nights. His sclera had turned from pure white to putrid yellow and his eye socket had darkened and hollowed out.

"I called you here because I have a favor to ask of you." Tsunade hesitated, but Kakashi simply stared blankly at her. Dissatisfied, she continued, "Sasuke is moving to avenge the death of your students."

Still nothing.

"I want you to follow him." Tsunade ordered sternly.

Finally Kakashi responded, "I thought you ordered that no ninja pursue Akatsuki for revenge?"

"I am not asking for you to pursue Akatsuki. I want you to keep an eye on Sasuke." Tsunade retorted.

"And if he finds Pein, am I supposed to watch another one of my students die?" Kakashi stood up from his chair, the rising anger taking hold of his rational mind. He began to head for the door, but stopped when Tsunade's hand rested on his shoulder.

"Kakashi, this time I need you to trust me. There are things happening, information that we are still processing. I need someone I can trust to watch over the Uchiha kid." Tsunade pleaded.

Kakashi sighed in defeat, "At least this time if something does happen I can be there to help." He admitted.

"I'm sorry Kakashi… Maybe if I had let you go with them-"

"Then there would be three bloody headbands instead of two." Kakashi finished.

"Their deaths will not be in vain. I promise." Tsunade said to the exiting Kakashi.

"I know."

* * *

_Sasuke's eyes reverted back to their normal Onyx state as Hinata's unconscious body fell forward into his outstretched __arms__._

"_You are more like him than I thought." __Sasuke thoughts as he watched the sleeping kunoichi heaving her body up and around to his back. Once he was sure she was secure__,__ Sasuke headed to the front of his complex._

_The quiet walk in the dark of night left Sasuke with nothing but his own reflections on the outcome of __his__ and Hinata's spar. He regretted using the Tsukuyomi, both because it had knocked Hinata out and because Sasuke was now stuck carrying her throughout the city like she was a sleeping child._

"_Yo, Sasuke!" Kakashi voice called out from behind. Sasuke turned to see his former teacher in his usual navy blue body suit and Jounin vest. Kakashi walked up but paused once the sleeping figure on Sasuke's back became visible._

"_I didn't know you and Hinata-chan were so close__,__" Kakashi __spoke slowly__. _

"_Tch. We're not. She fell asleep, I'm just taking her home." Sasuke __retorted__. _

_Kakashi continued his interrogation, "She fell asleep at your house? Why was she there in the first place?"_

"_Why are you here?" Sasuke infuriatingly changed the subject. Kakashi took note of Sasuke's quick rise in anger, but decided he'd ponder the reason for Sasuke's deflection for another time._

"_Hokage-sama sent me to find out when you will be leaving." Kakashi lied._

_Sasuke wondered if Kakashi would be his new partner. After all he was Naruto and Sakura's teacher and probably wanted revenge against Pein just as much as he did, "Tomorrow afternoon. Are you joining me?"_

"_No, I have another mission." Kakashi replied solemnly._

"_Hmp. What could be more important?" Sasuke asked, annoyed by Kakashi's seemingly carelessness. When he received no answer Sasuke just turned around and continued his course back to Hinata's apartment._

_The silent walk back to Hinata's apartment gave Sasuke the time to make his travel plans. Luckily, Orochimaru had plenty of now abandoned hideouts all __throughout __the five nations. Now that Orochimaru was gone Sasuke could use them at his discretion. The last news he had heard regarding Akatsuki was that they were still pursuing the eight-tails. He would start there._

_Thoughts of Pein and Akatsuki became harder and harder to focus on as Hinata incessantly nuzzled against Sasuke's neck in an attempt to find comfort. By the time Naruto's apartment became visible Sasuke thoughts were filled with pink hair, peach skin, and a truckload of regret. Three nights before she died Sasuke had spent the night at Sakura's apartment. He had made it his temporary residence whenever he was visiting Naruto since he spent more time with Sakura than with the blonde ninja. Sasuke struggled to push his thoughts of Sakura away as he walked up to Hinata's door._

_Hinata had locked the door to the apartment, so Sasuke had to sit her against the doors frame to search for the spare key that Naruto always kept. He remembered that the idiot never did remember __where __he last left his keys so there were always spares littered all over the entrance to his apartment. After finding one of the spares, Sasuke lightly pushed open the door with his hip as he bent down to pick Hinata up. Once inside, Sasuke maneuvered to the bedroom and gently place Hinata down. Once she was down, Sasuke turned to leave, but stopped at the sight of the picture of Naruto that was lying on the bed._

"_You idiot," Sasuke mumbled one last time as he walked towards the opened doorway of the apartment, carefully locking up as he left. _

* * *

The afternoon sunlight pervaded throughout Hinata's bedroom and the young Kunoichi continued to toss and turn across the bed as she lazily searched for shelter away from the day's light. Morning had come and gone, and Hinata had awakened at an earlier hour to find herself curiously back in her apartment. After falling back into a comfortable slumber, she was reluctantly pulled back into the waking world from the piercing sun that had brightened the entire apartment. She had wondered if she dreamed the entire chance meeting with Sasuke, but the deep purplish bruise on her left leg resonated with a real and very painful reality.

The blood red eyes of the Sharingan drifted through Hinata's memory as she tried to remember what happened last night. She had surprised him enough so that he had to use one of his highest level Genjustu. That fact alone was a victory in itself, but the quandary of how she got back to her apartment remained just that. Her cheeks tinged a light shade of pink as she surmised that Sasuke must have carried her across the village in the dead of night like a drunken first date gone sour. Rising out of the bed, Hinata tried to plant her two feet down on the ground and immediately falling forward.

"Ouch…" Hinata mumbled as she dragged herself back into bed to try again. This was the effects of the Tsukuyomi. Not only did Hinata feel weak, but the pain in her left leg was surprisingly more than she expected. After regaining her composure, Hinata limped over to the bathroom and sat down on the toilet to give her aching legs a rest as she waited for the bathtub to fill up. The steaming hot bath water worked like an instant anesthetic and before Hinata could even submerge her entire body the pain had vanished.

The heat from the bathwater dulled after an hour and much to Hinata's delight she found it easier to move around as she picked herself up from the bathtub. After drying herself off, Hinata began to examine the bruise on her leg. She would have to thank Sasuke for bringing her back to the apartment. Then she would repay him for the bruise on her leg.

After some brisk medical treatment, Hinata quickly cleaned the apartment. She had done nothing but sleep and shower for the past few days as she wallowed in her own despair, but today her mind remained amiably distracted as she mentally prepared herself for another sparring session with Sasuke.

A light knock on the door tore Hinata away from her thoughts and she was pleasantly surprised to see Neji standing there with a bag of food in his hands.

"Neji-san!" Hinata greeted her cousin warmly as she pushed him back out door and locked it behind her, "What brings you here?" she asked, ushering Neji to follow her as she began to walk away from the apartment.

"I…uh… Came to see how you're doing. Shizune told me that she saw you yesterday in the Hokage tower and that you still were upset. She was worried that you probably weren't eating so she asked me to bring you some food." Neji said as he held up his hands to show Hinata the bento that Shizune had prepared for her.

"Thank you so much!" Hinata exclaimed as she unlocked her apartment, took the food out of Neji's hands to place it on the floor next to the door and promptly closed it back again.

Before turning to leave, Hinata smiled and nodded her goodbye to Neji who looked completely bewildered at his cousin's jovial mood, "What the hell happened to her?" Neji asked the air after Hinata had walked out of his eyesight.

Hinata half walked, half ran towards the Uchiha compound. The excitement of finishing the sparring match that she had been unwilling to participate in initially had crept up on her. So much so that she was shocked to see that her body had taken off the ground and she was now jumping from rooftop to rooftop just to get to Sasuke's compound faster.

By the time she reached the Uchiha compound Hinata's legs and chest had already tightened just from the run over. She bent over, bracing the once intimidating looking door as she sucked in as much air as her lungs would allow. The run over to Sasuke's compound had taken more out of her than she thought, but Hinata relished the feeling of temporary fatigue. She was finally moving again. Naruto and Sakura had been dead for three weeks and thanks to Sasuke's harsh verbal and physical beating this was the first time that she hadn't cried herself to sleep or woken up to continue her ritualistic sobbing.

After Hinata caught her breath she raised her hand to knock on the solid oak panel in front of her only to have it open up before her fingers tapped the wood. Again Sasuke and Hinata stood in front of each bathed in a deep and awkward silence. It wasn't till Sasuke rolled his eyes in the very same "What the fuck do you want" fashion he had done the day before did Hinata try to say anything.

"I-I-I—" Hinata stammered until Sasuke cut her off.

"Stop stuttering. It's annoying." Sasuke demanded.

"Right. Sorry. I came for some more…um…fighting, but only if you have the time! I don't want to bother you!" Hinata blurted out.

Sasuke's annoyed glared caused Hinata to divert her eyes back down to her own feet. After an endless minute of silence, Hinata looked back up from the sounds of Sasuke's shuffling feet and the imaginary "follow me" sign that was on Sasuke's back.

Hinata stepped into the compound behind Sasuke, trailing him as he walked towards one of the buildings in the back of the area. Hinata surveyed the empty ghost town that used to be Sasuke's home. Despite the years of abandonment the area seemed pretty well kept. Most of the homes had been recently repainted and repaired. Clearly Sasuke had been keeping himself busy with more than just blowing things up.

"…Tea?" Sasuke asked, causing Hinata to whip her attention back to his direction.

"Huh?" she questioned.

"Would you like some tea?" Sasuke repeated, as he turned towards the doors of one of the larger homes.

"I…um…" Hinata replied.

The utterly confused look in Hinata's eye prompted Sasuke to grab her by the hand and pull her through the doorway. Once they were both inside, Sasuke removed his sandals and began to walk towards the kitchen. After a few steps he called back to Hinata, "Follow me, and don't touch anything."

Hinata did as she was told, following the young Uchiha as he navigated through the house and into the kitchen. He motioned for Hinata to have a seat as he put some water on the stove to boil. After a few more minutes of neither Sasuke nor Hinata speaking, their silence was broken by the sounds of the whistling teapot. Sasuke poured Hinata a cup of tea and did the same for himself as he sat down across from the Hyuuga.

"I am not fighting today. There are other things that I need to do." Sasuke said bluntly.

"Oh, right then. I shouldn't have came and bothered—" Hinata began, but was cut off by Sasuke.

"I'm leaving tonight. I'm going to find Pein and when I do, I'm going to kill him." Sasuke continued as if Hinata hadn't even spoken. There was another long silence between the two. Hinata stared at her own brown colored reflection from the tea in her cup.

"What if you can't kill him?" she muttered, uncertain if she even wanted to hear the answer.

"Then I'll die trying." Sasuke said flatly.

"I…I don't want anyone else to die." Hinata whispered, but her words carried clearly through the empty house.

"Did Naruto's life mean that little to you?" Sasuke's words were like someone pouring ice water down Hinata's back. She jumped up from the chair, opening her mouth in rebuttal, but all that could be heard was the crashing sound of the tea cup that she dropped shattering against the floor.

"Naruto and Sakura are dead, and you're okay with Pein living?" Sasuke continued, "Not wanting anyone else to die makes their deaths meaningless." Sasuke let out and annoyed sigh as his eyes passed over Hinata who was staring firmly at the ground. He had hurt her feelings again in some way. It didn't matter, he was right wasn't he? If he didn't avenge their deaths who would? Certainly not her! Sasuke couldn't imagine Hinata raising a threatening hand to an annoying fly let alone the killing blow to powerful S-class ninja.

"I am an Avenger. This is what I do." Sasuke said seeing that he was having no effect on Hinata's injured feelings. "I'm not going to die. Don't worry." His words spilled out of his mouth involuntarily and for a split second his eyes betrayed the shock he felt from his own statement. Hinata had looked up just in time to see the momentary lapse in Sasuke's icy demeanor. Just as quickly as it had come, the moment passed. Sasuke returned to his emotionless glare making her feel like she had once again violated one of the unspoken rules to their makeshift friendship. Afterwards the two just let the silence envelope the room again.

"Where will you go?" Hinata asked finally breaking the silence.

"Towards Kirigakure. Orochimaru has a hidden base on one of the eastern islands. Orochimaru kept a lot of information about Akatsuki there. I will need all the information I can get about Pein before I find him." Sasuke said in a matter of fact tone. His words came out so steady and definite it was as if he had been waiting for someone to ask him all along. After he laid out his plan to Hinata, Sasuke stood up, again grabbing her hand to lead her back to the doorway that they had entered through.

The walk back to Hinata's house was a lonely and long one. The sun began to descend into the horizon casting a bronze, depressing glow over everything in sight. Her head ached from being wound too tight with both worry and grief. "I am an Avenger" Hinata had seen Sasuke's fighting abilities before, but was he a match for Pein? As she continued to meander around the city Hinata let her thoughts orbit around something else that Sasuke had said. Just the act of trying not to think about gave rise to a familiar icy feeling that coiled around her lungs, sucking the air from her. "Did Naruto's life mean that little to you?"

The words whispered through her thoughts. How much did Naruto mean to her? Clearly his death had shattered her world, but after seeing Sasuke that was now no longer an excuse for her inaction. His strong will pushed him on to a new goal, one that would force Sakura and Naruto's life right down Pein's throat till it suffocated him. He would snuff out Pein's life like he had snuffed out their loved ones and before she knew it Hinata caught herself imaging Sasuke droving his sword right through Pein's heart in their name. The thought warmed her entire body easing the confusion of not knowing what she was going to do now, but before the barren feelings of uncertainty returned to her, Hinata had found herself already running.

No longer wading through the streets of Konoha, Hinata had taken off in full sprint towards her apartment. She burst through the door of the vacant and empty living space, not bothering to close the door behind her. Why should she? She only stopped here to pick up a few things then she would be leaving again unsure of when she would return. Hinata's hands reached out, frantically grabbing her essential items. Extra clothes, kunai, a toothbrush, a bed roll and some food were quickly shoved into her knapsack. Only when she reached for her Konoha headband did Hinata pause from her excited packing. Her eye fixed themselves on the picture she had of Naruto and herself. It was one of the first that they had taken together. She remembered being so nervous that her face had turned nearly purple. She looked like an Easter bunny with Naruto's two fingers up above her head. His wide mischievous grin had calmed her wracked nervousness afterwards and it had been one of the last times she was ever nervous with him again.

She took the picture out of the frame and placed it into her pack as well along with Naruto's headband that had been given to her after Kakashi's return. She was set to go. With one more uncertain glace back to the apartment that held her memories of a happy life with the man she loved Hinata closed the door to the apartment and quickly headed for the entrance gates to Konoha.


	4. IV

Chapter 4

Kakashi waved his hand across the small bead of moonlight that managed to penetrate through the curtains of his bedroom windows. It was midnight, and most of the leaf village's population had gone home to their families and fallen into a carefree sleep. Kakashi however, had no such luxury. Even before Sakura and Naruto were killed Kakashi had trouble sleeping, but at least back then he could sleep. Now he spent his nights uncomfortably lying in his own skin, dwelling on the things he wished he had done differently in his life.

But tonight was different. The pigeon that was incessantly tapping at his window was proof enough.

Tonight, he had been waiting patiently for the light tapping from the small bird. The 'caller pigeon' was a signal from the gate guard to alert Kakashi of Sasuke's departure. Its arrival meant it was time for Kakashi to set out on his own mission as well. He grabbed the previously packed backpack that housed his own travel essentials, reflecting on his decisions that he had made that day.

"Those who break the rules and codes of the ninja world are called trash." Kakashi had once told his former students. Those words echoed through his mind as he made his way out of the door of his apartment. Tsunade had ordered that he follow Sasuke and kept an eye on him from the shadows. Her orders were clear that he was not to pursue Pein on his own.

"Those who break the rules and codes of the ninja world are called trash" Again the words drifted into the forefront of Kakashi's mind, but he quickly cleared them away as his need to stay focused took precedence over his ideology. He walked up to the front gates of Konoha and gave a friendly nod to the two Anbu that were camouflaged against the thick concrete walls. Then, as fast as his legs would take him, Kakashi ran. He was not headed towards Sasuke, but to his own goals. This would make him trash, but at least he would be trash that could look at Naruto and Sakura's graves with dignity instead of the aching regret that he felt now.

The night had definitely not gone the way Hinata had planned as she nervously stared off towards the distance unsuccessfully avoiding the sight ahead. Her heart was drumming so loudly she could feel its pulse banging in her ears like an orchestrated percussion solo. Its banging did little to offset the pain stemming from Hinata's other wounds. After four hours of traveling as fast as she could she had clumsily tripped one of the traps that Sasuke had placed to mask his departure. That trap had sent three waves of deadly projectiles towards her. Thankfully she hadn't been hit anywhere vital but she did take a shuriken to her left shoulder. In hindsight, taking the time to treat the wound had not been the best choice since that momentary pause is what put her in the predicament she was in now.

"Sasuke, it's me." Hinata said, trying to keep her mind off the fact that the point of Sasuke's katana was pressed against her neck.

"I know it's you," Sasuke's said not dropping his katana from Hinata's neck, "What are you doing here?"

Hinata swallowed hard, but winced as the action pushed her skin deeper against Sasuke's blade. The sharp point cut through the skin of her neck effortlessly ,causing blood to trickle down its side. "I-I-I…" Hinata started, but her resolved began to crumble against Sasuke's hostility.

"I told you to stop stuttering. It's annoying." Sasuke remarked again, the same agitated tone in his voice like the first time he demanded that Hinata control her own speech impediment.

The familiar feeling of being told what to do kicked started Hinata's ability to speak and she continued, "I want to come with you."

Foolishly, there was a moment that Hinata could have sworn that Sasuke was going to welcome her with open arms. He was going to tell her that he would love the company and the two of them would hunt down Pein and kill him for killing Naruto and Sakura. Then they would both be happy for the closure. As Sasuke lowered his sword from Hinata's neck she was sure this was yet another one of his silent invitations. She took a step towards him, only to hear his voice stop her in her tracks, "You're too weak to be of use to me. Go home Hinata."

It had taken Sasuke less than five seconds to completely shatter the resolve Hinata had spent nearly twelve hours building. The air had been stolen from her lungs and instinctively Hinata moved her right hand to her chest to insure that she was indeed still breathing. It was a sign of weakness, and it did not go unnoticed by the coldhearted Sasuke. His eyes spoke an inaudible "See I told you so." And all Hinata could do was blankly stare at the stone-faced Uchiha. She irrationally hoped that he was joking, but knew better. Sasuke said she was weak and all she did was confirm. It was just that Sasuke thought she was weak, even after all the time she spent with Naruto, in the back of her mind she thought it too. The clarity that her actions were the proof of her weakness caused Hinata's knees to tremble, giving in under the weight of Sasuke's words.

She fell to the ground, face buried deep into her hands attempting to muffle the sounds of her own crying. Sasuke hovered above her with the uncomfortable carelessness of a complete stranger as the young kunoichi cried shamelessly in front of him. His eyes did everything to avoid Hinata. His mind paced back and forth between his options for handling the "crying girl" situation before his mouth beat him to the punch.

"You really are pathetic," Sasuke finally said in an icy tone. The indignation in his voice froze the muffled sobs from Hinata. She looked up to face him as he continued to berate her, "I told you that you are too weak to be of use to me…"

This time he left his words open ended. Instead he took one step closer, waiting for a reaction from the bewildered Hyuuga. Hinata remained completely still, fear had taken over every one of her limbs and she was locked into place with the rigor mortis of a fresh corpse. Sasuke opened his mouth to say something. He wanted to yell at her for being such a weakling when her former counterpart didn't have the word fear in his entire lexicon. How could Naruto ever have loved her? Sasuke's eyes showed his distain when his mouth failed to react to his thoughts and in the moonlit night, the red eyes of the Sharingan glowed with contempt.

"Please, let me come with you." Hinata whispered softly.

"_Please let me come with you. Sasuke-kun, let me be with you. If you're never going to stay here in the village, then there's no place for me here." Sakura whispered almost too low to be heard. Sasuke looked down at Sakura who had not bothered to return the gaze. She instead continued to concentrate on the small rings she made with her finger around his naval. Her pink hair spilled over his left shoulder, disappearing beneath his own jet black hair._

_As they both lay in each others arms Sasuke could feel Sakura's heart beating against his bare skin. "She was anxious, surprising since this was not the first time she had asked." Over the past few months Sakura had become less and less satisfied with the infrequent nights she spent with Sasuke. She began to press him about returning to the village and being closer to her. His answer was always the same. He rejected any notion of ever coming back to this village._

_The soft brush of Sakura lips against his skin broke his pondering of her question. Finally she turned to face him and her eyes neither searched for an answer nor waited to hear one. Grateful for just his presence, she dropped the subject for a later date. It was what he loved the most about her. The short tempered kunoichi, the only ninja in the village who was often referred to as "The Demon Fox's Handler" was just a regular women during these night__s__ they spent alone._

_Sakura climbed on top of him, blowing the candle out next them and returning the room to complete darkness, "I'll think about it." Sasuke thought to himself._

Sasuke shook the memory away, refocusing on the pleading girl in front of him, "Come on…" He said with an exasperated sigh. He held out his hand to help her off the ground. Hinata was nothing like Sakura, but the guilt Sasuke felt for not being there when she needed him didn't need to make that distinction. Instead Hinata's tears got the better of him, compelling him to let her tag along.

Hinata's eyes shifted from Sasuke back down to his outstretched hand. Confusion was written all over her face, but Sasuke made no attempts to enlighten her. So instead of searching for an explanation to his actions, Hinata just simply took his hand. Sasuke gently lifted her off the floor and waited as she dusted the moist dirt from her knees. After a few moments of uneasy silence Sasuke simply took off into the trees with Hinata in short pursuit.

The night air was still and humid, lifeless of any cooling winds. Sasuke and Hinata pounced from branch to branch as they continued to head towards the islands of Kiri. While they both traveled Hinata put her body on autopilot as she tried to sort out all her personal thoughts that were fighting for her attention. Her ego had been once again shot down, courtesy of Sasuke's angry tirade, but this time the feelings welling up inside her were not the same as they always have been. They were not the complacent feelings of uselessness that she had become accustom to all her life, but a streak of anger. Each time Hinata thought about the events that had led her to become the traveling buddy to the cold hearted Uchiha it left her with a hot streak of rage so intense she actually began to sweat amidst the cool windless night. She was ready to give up everything to help Sasuke avenge Naruto, yet all he did was degrade her. What was worse was that once Sasuke was finished, Hinata couldn't even find the words to voice her own self-worth. That fact snuffed out any of her hostility, leaving her with nothing but a regretful aftertaste.

The air whistled past the two ninja's ears, creating a steady high pitched hum that was only interrupted by the occasional thud of sandal against tree bark. Sasuke and Hinata had been traveling for more than three hours, and although Sasuke showed no signs of fatigue, Hinata's heavy breathing was becoming more and more audible as the minutes stroked past. Finally giving into the wordless pleading of Hinata's lungs Sasuke quickly found a small clearing where he stopped and began to setup camp for the night. Thankful that they were finally resting, Hinata quickly unrolled her bedroll. She slid into it, and was immediately overcome by her mind and body's desire for rest. She closed her eyes, barely listening to the shuffle of feet that were coming closer to her.

"…-ing tomorrow. Be ready…" was all Hinata could make out from Sasuke words before she fell into a deep and much needed slumber.

Hopeless. Sasuke pressed his palms against his face, hoping the added pressure would kick some sense into his brain. He needed some answers. Hell, first he needed to know the questions.

"Why the hell did I bring her?" Sasuke asked the darkness, but he received nothing back. Neither from the darkness of the surrounding forest or his own mind had answers for Sasuke's uncharacteristic actions.

Sitting with his back against the tree, Sasuke blankly stared at Hinata's sleeping form. She was all that's left of the blonde for him to remember. She was timid, weak, and that stuttering made Sasuke want to strangle her. Naruto had loved her, Sakura respected her, but for the life of him, Sasuke could not understand why?

"_Please let me come with you?" _

Why the hell did he bring her? Sasuke muddled over the strategic advantages to having a partner to help against such a powerful S-Class ninja, but in truth he knew he was only fooling himself. Hinata wasn't exactly the best choice when fighting a member of Akatsuki. Her ninja abilities were moderate at best and though she had surprised Sasuke when they were fighting, not everyone was going to fall for the same tricks he had.

After twenty minutes, Sasuke stood up from the tree stretching away the knots in his back as he headed to his own bed roll. Tomorrow he would be moving again. Tomorrow he will decide what to do with Hinata, best to make her return to Konoha before they made it out of the fire country.

The bright sunlight caused Hinata to shield her eyes as she awoke the next morning. The days light brought forward an abundance of color that had been absent the night before. Hinata rose up from her bed, neatly packing everything back into her knapsack as she looked around to confirm that Sasuke had not decided to lose her in the middle of the night. To Hinata's surprise, not only was Sasuke awake, but he had already packed his things, prepared a small breakfast, and was now practicing defensive kata.

"Good morning Sasuke-san." Hinata greeted with a small bow as she moved towards the breakfast. There was a single plate next to the now doused firewood that Sasuke used to cook. Sasuke nodded a quick hello then continued his morning ritual. Hinata looked from him to the food, offhandedly wondering if he was going to offer her any.

Her answer came in the form of a demanding "Eat…" The suddenness of his voice made Hinata jump and she quickly scooped the plate into her hands.

"Thank you, Sasuke-san." Hinata said softly before she began to eat.

"Don't thank me. You'll need your strength. It's a two day trip from our position to the port on the Iwada coast. The boat that will take us to the islands in Kiri leaves in four days. That means we will have two days to travel and two to train and rest. Once we reach Orochimaru's hideout things will pick up, so hopefully you will have improved by then." Sasuke explained.

"Improved?" Hinata asked between bites of her breakfast.

"I meant what I said, Hinata. You are too weak to be of use to me. Your skills are lacking. At best you would be a distraction to Pein, not a threat." Sasuke said coldly as he turned away from Hinata. The cheer in her face had quickly drained away with his every word. Hinata's face had fallen down to her plate and she examined it like it was a piece of fine china.

"Get up." Sasuke spoke. The cold harness had completely vanished from his voice. Hinata complied with his request standing up and gathering enough confidence to look at him. Sasuke's expression was unreadable. He was calm to the point of clairvoyance, and his calm made Hinata feel at ease. He took a step back reaching his hand over the hilt of his sword with such fluidity that Hinata barely noticed the blade until its shiny metal reflected the rays of sun into her face. Had it been anyone else the brief moment of blindness would have been fatal, but Sasuke had stopped short of Hinata's neck. The familiar frigid feeling of a quick death blanketed it self over Hinata's skin. Once again Sasuke had brought his sword dangerously close to Hinata's throat. His speed had been so quick Hinata hadn't even registered that he moved until it was far too late.

"Stay alert, you would be dead right now if I were the enemy." Sasuke said softly.

Sometime between the drawing of his sword and pressing it up against Hinata's neck Sasuke had switched his eyes from their normal charcoal color to the red-black pattern of the Sharingan. He stared into Hinata's eyes showing absolutely no emotion, a kind of battle hardened composure that spoke of a difficult ninja life. Sasuke could kiss her or kill her, and there would be no change on his face, no signs of joy or remorse for either action. Hinata lost herself in those deep red pools, and she began to wonder if Sasuke was using some form of Genjustu against her.

"Pay attention!" Sasuke commanded, snapping Hinata back to reality. "How did you stay alive for so long as a ninja if all you do is daydream during a battle?"

"I-I'm sorry it's just… right I will do my best from now on." Hinata apologized, hardening herself as she prepared to spar with Sasuke.

"No, you won't. Your best is pitiful. You can't fight at your best because you do not fear death around me." Sasuke retorted, "You think that just because you were Naruto's fiancée that I will protect you." Sasuke continued.

"No, no that's not—" Hinata tried to interject, but was cut off as Sasuke finished.

"That's exactly it! That is your problem. I bet your teammates always have to rescue you don't they? You wouldn't know a fight for your life if it bit you in the ass! That's because there was always someone saving you! Kiba, Shino, Naruto, even Neji"

"I-I-I don't need anyone to save me." Hinata said in a low whisper.

"Tch. Yeah right, but don't worry that's going to change. You'll fight for your life today, because if you don't Hinata I'm going to kill you." Sasuke's voice was barely audible, but their close proximity amplified his icy intent. "I will kill you before I let you slow me down Hinata."

"W-W-What?" was all Hinata could blurt out. Still utterly stunned by Sasuke statement, her knees began to tremble as fear rose up in her chest. Sasuke saw Hinata's unbalancing fear as an opportunity and pushed her back, completely knocking her off balance. Hinata hit the ground on her butt. She looked up to the guiltless Uchiha in surprise.

"That was you're last warning. Get ready."

If anything Sasuke was a man of his word. After a few minutes of cat and mouse Hinata found herself ducking under yet another swipe of his sword. She dodged low, but a bit too low and received a swift kick to the right side of her face. The impact caused her vision to fade into white, leaving her vulnerable as she thrashed her kunai in front of her wildly backing away simultaneously. She needed to fend him off until her sight returned and thankfully it did before Sasuke had a chance to close the distance between them.

The right side of her face was puffy and the swelling ached so bad it was hard to focus. Shaking away the pain as she sideswiped a downward slash from Sasuke's katana, Hinata frantically tried to think of a plan.

She needed to get that sword away from him. If she could do that, then at least they'd be even. Unfortunately, all plans to disarm a man who commended his sword like most did their underwear left her mind in a blank stupor. Hinata's eyes focused on the sword, trying to think of something to disarm Sasuke.

"Hn, you think you have a better chance if I didn't have the sword?" Sasuke questioned.

"Maybe if you didn't spend so much time looking at it I wouldn't have known it was your target. You're tired, you're beaten, you're scared. It leaves you both readable and open. Good! That means it's sinking in." The sentence barely finished before there was another rush of wind top her ducked head, another sword slash she barely got away from.

Sasuke's speed had increased exponentially since he and Hinata sparred back in his home. The gap between their abilities had become so crystal clear that Hinata didn't even need the time to think that she was weak. She was running around like a scared child trying to avoid a beating from an angry parent. That was enough presentation for her. However, even in the face of an enemy that was clearly her better, Hinata's mind continued to scramble up an idea as to how she was going to get the sword away from Sasuke.

Finally Hinata had a plan, and she put the shoddy plan to action. Sasuke lunged at her once again, aiming the point of his sword to her chest. Hinata dodged once again, shifting herself to the Sasuke's left side, leaving both him and her open for another attack. Sasuke capitalized, switching the direction of the katana from forward to Hinata's direction, only realizing his mistake too late as Hinata did not move to avoid the blow. Instead, Hinata darted forward closing the distance between Sasuke and herself before the sharp edge of the katana cut her in two.

Their bodies crashed into one another. Hinata had succeeded in taking the katana out of the picture. She used Sasuke's bewilderment as an opportunity, shoving her elbow in his throat as they both hit the ground. The gargled gasps of air that were followed by the spray of blood across Hinata's face filled Hinata's entire body with a warm feeling of triumph. So much so that the crackled sounds of bottled lightning barely registered.

"Chidori," Sasuke whispered under the pressure of Hinata's forearm.

The world began to move in slow motion at Sasuke's words. Hinata looked down in time to see Sasuke raise his hand to the left side of her chest. Impaling Hinata through the heart wasn't even the worst part, the fact that Sasuke show absolutely no hesitation in the use of such a deadly justu on a comrade rattled Hinata to the core. Now she understood why whenever Naruto would spar Sasuke he did not dare to hold back. An ounce of holding back would have meant death, and Sasuke would capitalize without a moments thought. They had been fighting for the better part of an hour, and Hinata had understood that Sasuke wanted to toughen her up for the mission they had ahead of them. In the back of her mind, even as she eluded some of the most lethal looking attacks she still thought that Sasuke wouldn't dare seriously wound his best friend's fiancée.

Hinata's flawed reasoning was nothing more than a mute point now. She needed to act. She needed to dodge, counter or be killed, the latter of which was out of the question. His hand rushed forward but Hinata gathered as much speed as she could to head him off, catching his wrist and pressing her index and middle finger against two of his chakra points. Sasuke rammed his open palm into Hinata's chest, but when Hinata didn't feel the hot piecing sensation of being run through by the lightning bolt she knew she had succeeded. She closed the flow of chakra to his hand moments before he killed her.

The passage of time was only outlined by the heaving breathing coming from both Hinata and Sasuke. Neither bothered to move from their position as Hinata lay over top of the pinned Sasuke.

"Get off me." Sasuke requested as politely as he could.

"Huh? What?" Hinata asked in as she tried to remove the haze that shrouded her thoughts.

"Get off me…please." Sasuke asked again.

It was then that Hinata came back to reality, a reality that didn't seem quiet right. There was something wrong about how they were positioned now. Something that Hinata couldn't place her finger on. Place…come to think of it… Hinata looked down and her face turn beet red. She was on top of Sasuke straddling him on the ground. That however, wasn't the worst of it. The very hand that Sasuke almost killed her with was resting lazily on her chest. Hinata quickly scrambled to get off of Sasuke and as far away from him as possible. Sasuke just rose to his feet, sighing as he watched the embarrassed Hyuuga who was more focused on her physical violation, than the eminent death that had been there just moments before.

"You just tried to kill me." Hinata whispered, bringing the gravity of their last fight back to the forefront.

Sasuke didn't say anything in retaliation, he just stood there watching Hinata shift through what ever it was she was feeling.

"If I hadn't… you would've…" Hinata rose to her feet, tugging at the open ends of her jacket as if the temperature had suddenly dropped. Clearly shell shocked, she wandered towards the tree line, desperate to put distance between her and the man she thought was a friend. Sasuke just watched as Hinata walked away from the clearing. He stood there, his face defiant with his own self righteousness. Yeah he tried to kill her, but he didn't. Not because he showed mercy, but because she stopped him. The throbbing pain in his left wrist was enough evidence of that. Maybe she just needed time, but if she didn't return by morning he would just move on without her. Better she be afraid of death, than blindly running into it.


	5. V

*stares at the angry group of readers.*

Yes, I know 6 months is a ridiculous amount of time to wait for one chapter, but alot of "life" things happened.

Also A.E. Stover and I put in a lot of work to revise this chapter and the ones before so I hope you enjoy =)

* * *

Time ticked away with the monotonous rhythm of Hinata's shuffling footsteps. The day had passed by, and the sun began to drip into the horizon reflecting the rust colored indications of dusk. Hinata stopped her wandering amidst the forest and took a seat next to a nearby tree. The swelling on the right side of her face had condensed down to a plum colored knot. Its pain had also subsided, only pulsing lightly whenever Hinata clenched her teeth. Hinata had needed to put distance between herself and Sasuke, but instead of leaving him with a clear destination in mind she had simply wandered around the forest.

Now she was lost both literally and figuratively. The pressing need for rest poured over every aching muscle and joint in her body as her breath became baited and slowed. Her heavy eyes closed, and threatened to not open again until after a few hours of much needed rest.

"Maybe I should go back." Hinata muttered to the wind. But which "back" was she referring to exactly? Even in her extreme sleep depravity Hinata knew there was no way she could return home now. Leaving now would only further confirm that she was worthless.

But back to Sasuke? The same Sasuke who could make her breakfast or kill her in the same careless breath?

It was clear that Sasuke had absolutely no compassion left in him for anyone but himself. The pain from losing both his first and second families left a voided chasm where his sense of human kindness should have been. This made Sasuke dangerous, but even with all those negatives stacked against him, Sasuke was still the lesser of two evils against Konoha

Naruto was everywhere in Konoha. The Academy where they first met, and Ichiraku where they had their first date. Even the Hokage monument, where Naruto finally gathered the nerve to kiss her, was a remnant to her life with Naruto. Without him, there was no reason for Hinata to return. Konoha had become a relic in Hinata's past, but Sasuke wasn't a part of that past. Sasuke was dangerous, but Sasuke and his path of vengeance was her future.

Hinata's thoughts rejuvenated her body. In them, she found the strength and conviction to go back to the camp where she had left Sasuke hours ago. Hinata knew Sasuke would be waiting and that he would say something about her running away. Sasuke would use her return as an excuse to chastise her decision to come with him. Hinata didn't think about that; she pushed Sasuke's cold, oppressing eyes out of her mind and focused on her true goals. She had never chosen to take this trip because of Sasuke in the first place.

No, instead she would keep her mind focused on Pein and take from him what he took from her. As she walked back to the camp where she had ran away from, Hinata settled on thoughts, not of Sasuke or Pein, but of the comfort of her sleeping bag. She would just have to force Sasuke to wait till after she had rested to say whatever he was going to say to her.

Night was approaching and Sasuke continued sitting underneath the comforting shade of the tree line that had shielded him from the unforgiving afternoon sun. Sasuke rested lazily inside the now useless shade as he continued to count the hours till his voice returned. Hinata had succeeded in closing the tenketsu in wrist and she nearly crushed his larynx leaving Sasuke with nothing to do but silently wait as time passed and he healed. Once the sun's light had completely faded from view Sasuke began to wonder if Hinata was going to return or retreat back to the comfort of Kohona.

"Hmph," he wheezed out as he pulled himself off the ground, "She's not coming back." he reasoned. He nearly put a Chidori though her chest. There was no way anyone other than Naruto was stupid enough to—

The clearing had become nothing more than a group of shadows with the aid of moonlight, but Sasuke could still tell the rustling of footsteps could only be one person. Hinata maneuvered through the darkness over to where she was sure she'd left her sleeping bed. The night wore a thick oily darkness about it, but even in its blackout, the tingling up Hinata's spine warned her of Sasuke's gaze. He coldly looked over Hinata, trying to discern the reason for her return. Surely, Sasuke had succeeded in getting the "I will kill you if you slow me down" message across, but nevertheless, she was back here and no doubt she would want to continue following him.

"Tch. You're just like him, neither of you ever get the hint do you?" Sasuke rasped out.

There was a long pause of silence. Hinata hadn't taken the bait, instead she choose to say nothing instead which irritated Sasuke more than her damn stutter, "Why don't you just go home Hinata?" Sasuke wheezed out in anger.

Still no words came back to him. Fueled by the anger of her silence Sasuke jumped off the ground was stomped over to Hinata, "Why don't you—"

Sasuke's angry tirade was cut short when Hinata closed her eyes. Had she had fallen asleep already? Deflated by his complete dismissal, Sasuke could do nothing but snort at the sleeping Hinata as he retreated back to his own sleeping bag.

* * *

The morning's light brought heat to the chilled skin of Musaki and his companions. Closing his eyes, Musaki tried to enjoy the mild temperature and the sounds of nature from all around him as he idly picked at the spaces between his teeth with one of his senbon. But nature's tranquility was absent that morning, replaced by Musaki's two companions Tsuka and Ginu who were both at each other's throats, having another argument about which of the two's fighting skills were superior.

Tsuka was a short thin man with a frame that resembled a boy more than it did the 25 year old that he was. He mocked Ginru - an act that Musaki thought may have been a bit unwise - about his novice use of Genjutsu

Ginru, a towering six foot muscle man simply laughed at the idea of needing anything more than his own strength against his foes.

"Enough you two," Musaki said in an icy voice. His sharp tone effectively cut the conversation short. Tsuka and Ginru quieted themselves as they both turned to the leader of the group. "The target is coming. We need to get ready." Musaki said as he walked towards the road.

A single Kumogakure ninja appeared from seemingly no where. The ninja took a quick survey of the area before he disappeared back to where ever he came from. The encounter had been a close one, but Musaki and Ginru had managed to hide themselves from the Kumo scout. Tsuka had intentionally let his chakra signature be detected. Hiding themselves from the scout had been the easy part. Now, the more challenging half of their plan would begin.

"State your business!" The scout whispered out his orders in a hushed, but demanding tone. He held the tip of a kunai to Tsuka's throat, letting the cold steel graze against his skin. Just as Musaki had expected; upon reading Tsuka's charka in the area, the scout had simply hid himself in the trees and waited for an opening to attack.

Kumo ninjas were always so predictable. There was always one scout, some sort of support ninja, and two others. The scout was responsible for eliminating questionable threats ahead of time, but Musaki's true target would be about fifty meters back along the road.

But Musaki didn't just kill the scout. Instead, he kept him alive long enough so that the others with him could be taken care of. And that meant that one of Musaki's companions would need to be the bait.

In the ten years that Kouhei had spent being a ninja, he could not recall ever meeting a more pathetic criminal. Kouhei had been chosen for the position of scout due to his keen ability to detect chakra signatures. His ability gave him a sort of measuring stick as to how skilled a ninja would be by the way they controlled chakra. It was a skill that had kept him alive through some of the toughest missions. But Kouhei's skill wasn't even needed to find the poorly masked ninja that was attempting to hide in the tall grass off the south side of the road. Kouhei had so easily snuck up behind the thief that he was sure the poor bastard would wet himself if Kouhei's kunai drew some blood from his throat.

Kouhei held the thief in place with one hand while the other held his kunai against the thief's Adam's apple as he waited for an answer.

"Kouhei?" the thief answered back, but the voice that called back to Kouhei paralyzed him in place.

"Kouhei, is that you?" the thief questioned again. The thief turned around out of Kouhei's grip so easily it seemed as if Kouhei wasn't holding him at all. It was only when Kouhei shook himself out of his mental gaze did he notice that he indeed had let go of the suspicious person in with the familiar voice.

"Kouhei, it's me Akemi." Kouhei looked to the thief, disbelieving that image that was projected in front of him. The thief was none other than Kouhei's little sister Akemi. Just hearing Akemi's name sent a surge of electricity down Kouhei's spine. The Genjutsu that was being used on him confirmed that this person really was the worst ninja Kouhei had ever met. Akemi had been dead for almost three years. She had died in her sleep from illness and this person was using the image of Akemi manipulate him. The idea made Kouhei white with anger.

"You are not Akemi." Kouhei seethed out as he pressed his hands together tiger seal, attempting to break the Genjustu around him. When nothing happened Kouhei focused back on the pseudo-Akemi, readying himself to attack.

"Aw, man Ginru is never gonna let me live this one down…" Akemi sighed out as she changed back into Tsuka.

"I told you to state your business!" Kouhei shouted to Tsuka. Kouhei yearned to kill this man. He wanted to run up and gut him with the dull end of his kunai, but he couldn't. The genjutsu that Kouhei was trapped in seemed to be preventing him from moving. If he could just break the spell then he would—

"Don't bother," Tsuka called out to the ninja. Tsuka had seen that look before. They all had it once they think they broke through the genjutsu. The look of "if I could just get to him then I would…" "Don't bother," Tsuka repeated, "You're already dead…"

By this time Kouhei's warning bells were sounding at full alert. He had no idea what was happening to him. Now that the anger he felt took a backseat to his own self preservation Kouhei finally noticed that something was really wrong here. His legs were gone, not just gone but eaten! Hundreds of tiny, featureless faces were slowly eating away at both his legs. The eyeless mouths had already taken both of Kouhei's feet and calves and were working their way up his thighs.

Kouhei screamed as the sight of his own flesh being eaten broke the ninja's battle harden resolve. He attempted to swat the mouths away, but the moment his hands came in contact with one of the faces they too became victims to the nibbling torture.

"Well I think this wraps up the argument for today." Musaki yelled over the last remnants of the scouts screams. Finally the featureless mouths nibbled away the last of the ninja named Kouhei and the area fell silent again except for the hushed chuckle of Ginru who had been proven right that his physique had been superior. While Tsuka had trouble taking care of the scout Ginru had single-handedly dispatched the other three ninjas that were protecting the carriage.

Musaki and his crew had gotten what they can for. The target was a revised copy of the Kumogakure's cliental. Apparently someone in the hidden sound village was willing to pay quite a bit of money just to get there hands on it. Although Musaki didn't understand the reason, he didn't really care either. A paycheck was a paycheck, and the payoff from this job was more than enough for he and his allies to live off of for a long time.

"Alright, I need a drink," Musaki called over to Ginru and Tsuka. Satisfied with a job well done, now it would be time for celebration.

"There is a town right outside of the harbor, we could get a few drinks there." Ginru mentioned as he dragged two of the dead ninja's body off into the thick forest.

"Aye, I'm gonna get piss drunk and fine me something pretty to do!" Tsuka laughed out. Months of stressful planning for this heist seemed to drain out of all three men. Now would be time for liquor, women, and possibly more liquor.

With the promise of good times fueling their feet, Musaki, Ginru, and Tsuka took off for the harbor town.

* * *

Like clockwork, Sasuke's eyes popped open at the exact, same time as always. He rose up just minutes before the sun shed its morning light over the forest to survey the area around him. If he got a move on quickly he should be in Iwada a few hours before sundown. He'd take care of some affairs then hop on—

"Good morning Sasuke-san." Hinata said politely. Sasuke had forgotten about Hinata, and the fight they had the day before. Hinata smiled politely, nodding her head in greeting before she returned back to the finishing the breakfast she had already cooked.

"Why are you still here?" Sasuke asked curtly. His tone, as usual dictated the silence was not going to be an acceptable answer. This time she would tell him why she wouldn't just leave him to his mission in peace.

"Don't you get it? I don't want you here. I don't want your help, so just go back to Kohona."

Hinata had only slept a few hours the night before. She spent most of her night wondering just what she was going to say to Sasuke when he asked her why she was still here. Again his words passed through her, "Did Naruto's life mean so little?" those words were her driving force in the beginning. The irony that Sasuke was the reason she had even left the village kept the weight of his insults at bay. She may have been weak, but she was sure that he must have started the same as she was now. Sasuke may have gotten her out here, out of the village that she and Naruto shared, but he was not what kept her there now.

"I-I want t-to get stronger." Hinata had spoken into the darkness the night before and now with Sasuke's piercing black eyes raining down upon her she continued, "I want to become stronger, I want to kill Pein and avenge Naruto and Sakura myself."

"I don't want to wait around for someone to tell me that Pein is dead. I want…I want… I want to fight him myself." Hinata finished, not noticing that she was now standing face to face with Sasuke.

"Hmph." Was Sasuke's only retort, but after a few minutes of silence he continued, "We leave in fifteen minutes. Try and keep up, I don't want to have to slow down for you."

Elated with victory, Hinata simply nodded in acceptance as she quickly finished her meal.

Sasuke and Hinata traveled through the rest of the fire country underneath the comfortable shade of thick forest. They remained silent to each other most of the way, but the lack of conversation had more of a relaxing tone than an anxious one. Hours passed by without much change in the scenery of broad, lush, forestry until Sasuke and Hinata came upon the cliffs that signaled the end of the forest as well as the fire country.

"Hinata how far is your sight with the Byakugan?" Sasuke asked as he looked out over the cliffs horizon.

"Umm, four hundred meters Sasuke-san." Hinata replied

"These cliffs mark the end of the fire country. You'll need to keep your Byakugan active as much as possible and alert me if you see anything." Sasuke continued, firmly keeping his eyes scanning the treetops.

Nodding her head in comprehension, Hinata activated her Byakugan and scanned the through the forest as far as her sight would allow.

"Everything looks okay." Hinata reported to Sasuke who seemed satisfied with her affirmation as he leaped down off the cliff and down to the trees below leaving Hinata to follow suit soon after.

After the establishment of the Great Naruto Bridge wealth and business spread like wild fire throughout the Wave country and other villages and towns along the coast of the fire country. One of the villages were fortunate enough to taste the fruits of Wave's success was the small village-turned-port town, Kishi. Once a farming village, drowning in poverty, Kishi was now a thriving, seven dock, port town. Four years had given birth to several merchant shops, hotels, ship repair services, even a small hospital. The villagers who were at one time adverse to strangers now welcomed new guest into the town daily, greeting them with open arms as if they were family.

Sasuke and Hinata reached the port town of Kishi only a few hours after the sun had set of Iwada. The small port town was surprising lively during the late hours of night. Shops, bars and plenty of restaurants remained open and the night crowd of sailors, maidens and travelers trafficked between all three areas of business.

"Come on, let's find a place to sleep. The ship to Kiri leaves tomorrow." Sasuke said as he meandered through the crowd of pedestrians. Hinata followed suit behind Sasuke eyeing the influx of people as a large party of sailors loudly voiced the affections to one of the young girls that passed by. Hinata's cheeks tinged to a light pink from the lewd cat calls. Leaving the rowdy sailors behind, Hinata and Sasuke found a hotel that had a few vacant rooms.

Leaving Hinata at the hotel's entrance, Sasuke went to the reception area to buy room for both he and Hinata.

Hinata waited patently, taking in the dull, peeling, peach colored walls of the hotel. She traced along the four walls, past the hotel's reception, and humming ice machine that partially blocked the hallway which lead to the first floors rooms. Finally her eyes rested on the loft area that was populated by three loud, obnoxious men.

The three men reeked of beer and stale cigarettes. They shouted strings of profanity that gave other hotel guest the sudden urge to put as much distance between themselves and the loft as possible. Hinata watched lingeringly for a short while, only catching the eyes of one of three before looking away.

Tsuka stood up from the couch he had been sitting on to break away from his companions for a moment. He was drunk, very drunk, but he still moved with the swiftness and silence of the skilled ninja that he was. There was something that caught his eye a moment ago. He moved across the lobby, lightly tapping the shoulder of the young girl that had been observing the hotel's lobby.

"Tsuka," Tsuka slurred out to the young girl as he extended his hand.

Hinata looked him over, assessing the danger from shaking his hand. She wouldn't see any, Tsuka oozed with pacifism if he wanted to. If he wanted, he could seem totally harmless right up until he drove a knife in your back. And as if confirming his thoughts, Hinata shook Tsuka's hand and introduced herself.

"Hinata," she said. Her voice was light and as sweet as spring melody. She had to be what, 16? She was in quite a ripe age, and her body wasn't too bad either, at least for her age. If he wanted, he'd have some fun with her tonight, but that wasn't the reason for his introduction. No, there was something much more valuable with this girl than just her flesh.

Tsuka let his body sway as if the alcohol controlled his movement, but he kept his eyes staring deeply into Hinata's. Those big, innocent looking, pupils had Hyguua written all of them and they certainly fetched for a pretty penny on the black market. Tsuka started to say something else, but then Hinata's companion returned to her side. The dark haired young man didn't even bother to look in Tsuka's direction as he informed the Hyguua that they were ready.

"Hey man, me and the pretty lady here were talking." Tsuka drawled, keeping up the drunken façade even though the liquor's haze had cleared the moment he spoke to the young girl.

This guy was obviously ninja. His eyes quickly scanned over Tsuka and then his compatriots. Tsuka could tell he was sizing them up, trying to assess which of the three was the strongest and which was the leader.

"Oi, Ususi! Come on back over here man that girls already got a customer." Musaki called out from the loft.

Tsuka cursed mentally. If there was any confusion on who was the leader Musaki had cleared that right up. Gesturing for Tsuka to return to the party Musaki gave Sasuke one last glance before turning his attention back to his friend. Tsuka moseyed over to Musaki, maintaining his drunkard act. As he past Musaki he mouthed their next target and Musaki signaled him the confirmation. They would kill them both, take the girl's eyes and be richer than the three had ever imagined by the end of the week.

"Let's go." Sasuke ordered Hinata - who had turned deep red at the accusation of being a prostitute - as he headed towards the stairs

The third floor hallway was filled with reeked with the smell of stale cigarettes and spilled sake. The brown doors stood parallel to each other, numbered in succession from left to right. Hinata focused all her attention on the little brass number six that dangled off the keychain attached to the key to her hotel room. Shuffling as quickly as possible passed the other five doors to save her senses from the smells, sights, and sounds from the run down hotel, Hinata quickly entered her hotel room, locking the door behind her.

Not soon after entering the room, Hinata's refuge from the shady hotel was interrupted by a knock at the door. Hinata opened the door to see Sasuke standing at the door with his small bag waiting to be invited inside. Tired of looking at Hinata's blank expression Sasuke stopped waiting for his invite and let himself into Hinata's room.

"Umm… are you…" Hinata began, but a lump of fear and discomfort rose in her throat at the idea of her and Sasuke sleeping in the small one bed room together.

"Hmm?" Sasuke asked as he put his bag down on the table and took a seat in one of the chairs that was crammed against the corner of the room.

"Well, I…um… Are you and I…" Hinata continued to dance around the question that was screaming in her mind. She began to blush, the light pink shade that spotted her cheeks deepened and spread throughout her entire face as she spit out, "Are you sleeping here with me?"

Sasuke stared at Hinata blankly. He took pleasure in waiting as the seconds ticked by slowly, aggregating the painful silence in the room. He waited, struggling to keep his mouth tight lipped against the urge to burst out laughing. Hinata had gone from uncomfortable to full out embarrassment. The very idea that He would be in the room with her had turned her beet red. Sasuke hadn't seen something this amusing in quite a while and he didn't want to let it go. Sasuke's stoic attitude was a remarkable façade, he just stared at Hinata expressionlessly until the laughter inside of him subsided and he was through torturing her.

"No, my room is across the hallway." Sasuke answered, freeing Hinata of the tense silence.

O-O-Okay then," Hinata stuttered out as she let out a relieved sigh.

His lips curved upward. His will had lost the war against his humor. Sasuke made a snort that sounded akin to laughter as he stood up from the bed.

"Good Night." Sasuke said closing the door behind him as he exited Hinata's room.

* * *

A/N: I promise that the next chapter will be out in a timely fashion. Again thanks Stover for all your work!


	6. VI

The faint click from the opening door behind Hinata woke her from her light sleep. It was late and assuming the door was opened by Sasuke she couldn't imagine what he could have wanted at this hour. She faked a long stretch, reaching underneath her pillow to grab the kunai that was hidden there. The hotel they were staying in wasn't exactly five star, and just in case Hinata's late night visitor wasn't Sasuke she was prepared for an attack.

Hinata turned to face her guest as he stepped out of the shadows. His golden locks of unruly hair glowed against the ambiance of the streetlights from out of the Hotel windows. The room was dark, but the visitor's facial features became visible as he stepped from the shadows. His bright blue eyes and wide mischievous grin knocked the wind right out of Hinata's lungs.

She choked at first, a consequence for trying to speak and breathe in unison. Her second attempt was barely audible. "Naruto?" Hinata whispered.

Silence. Uncomfortable silence. Naruto didn't say anything, and the out of character behavior sent warning bells off in Hinata's head causing her to grip he hand around the kunai even tighter.

"This has to be a trick" Hinata's rational mind told her. There was no way Naruto would be sneaking around after being missing for almost three weeks. Hinata knew something was off, but in spite of that she couldn't bring herself to avoid the advancing blonde. Before she knew it Naruto was standing right in front of Hinata who was still seated on the bed.

Naruto reached his hand up, causing Hinata to flinch in anticipation of being struck, but no such blow came. Instead, Naruto gently slid the back of his index finger across her cheek. Hinata leaned into the warmth of his touch. He had touched her like that the night of their first kiss. He felt like Naruto. His hands were gentle, yet strong, chiseled out of hard training and natural kindness.

"Hinata-chan?" Naruto questioned. He sounded like Naruto, the caring and innocence in his voice gave Hinata security. She felt like nothing could harm her while Naruto was with her.

Hinata melted. She wrapped her arms around Naruto squeezing him as if he'd disappear if she released him. She cried softly. Tears of joy streaked down her cheeks, leaving small water stains on Naruto's pants. He even smelled like Naruto. Hinata held him close, taking in the scent of freshly prepared ramen.

"I thought you were dead." Hinata whispered out between cries. Naruto didn't reply, but Hinata didn't care, all that mattered to her was that he was back. They could go back to Konoha and continue their lives together.

Alarm bells were screaming "danger" all around Hinata, but she ignored them. He looked, felt, and even smelled like Naruto, but the feeling of a trap still pounded at the doors of Hinata's rational mind begging to be heard. Unwillingly, Hinata wiped her tears and looked up to the mirror that was behind Naruto and she. The image drained the life out of Hinata's eyes. Naruto had his hand held high in the air ready to drive a kunai into Hinata's neck.

This was not Naruto. But even as he stood ready to kill her, Hinata had to search for the will to let him go. The man she loved with everything she had was standing over her, and although he was attempting to kill her, Hinata could only think of the joy she felt in his presence.

The kunai drove downward, aiming for the base of Hinata's neck. She reluctantly dodged to the side to avoid the deadly blow, instead receiving a deep cut to her left side.

"Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked as he backed away to put distance between himself and Hinata.

Self preservation finally kicked in, forcing Hinata to look past her dead lover and survey her surrounding areas.

"Who are you?" Hinata asked. The room was small, and maneuvering around when she was already injured would be hard in such a cramped space. She needed to get out of the room. The forest was just a few yards beyond the hotel. If she could make it out there then she'd be in a better position to fight in the open area.

"Hinata-cha, it's me Naruto." Naruto said as he studied his frantic girlfriend.

Hinata could feel her grip loosen on from the kunai's handle that was in her hand. She began to wonder if she had somehow imagined the danger and that this really was Naruto. The gash on her arm bled, but Hinata blocked out the pain. Clearly, she had cut herself right? After all she was the only person in the room with a kunai in hand. The kunai that Naruto had –or at least the one she thought he had- was gone now. Naruto held out his hands, there was nothing in either of them. He was unarmed, and she was the only one with a weapon, so it had to have been her fault.

"Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked lowering her kunai. She slowly walked around the bed she had been sleeping in a moment ago. She was only a few feet from Naruto now. Behind her was the window, her escape. But Hinata didn't want to escape. She wanted Naruto to hold her in his arms, she wanted him to be real. Even though she willed herself to believe in the Naruto standing in front of her, Hinata could not bring herself to take another step forward. The kunai that she'd imagined hadn't just disappeared. She hadn't just imagined it. No, Naruto had carefully tucked it away on the nightstand that was behind him. If she was closer he could grab the knife and slice her throat open in one fluid motion.

Hinata couldn't stop the tears that ran down her face as she eyed the hidden kunai. Tsuka watched Hinata's eyes shift between the knife and himself and he knew the game was up. She had figured out that whoever he was supposed to be, he wasn't and that she was in danger. The young girl was frozen in place, unable to attack the person he had disguised himself as. She was crying, a sad sight, but not sad enough to make him waver from his goal. He could only see the money that lay in this little girls eyes, and the fun he would have removing them for her skull. Tsuka quickly picked up the kunai and lunged at Hinata.

--

Sasuke sat upright against the headboard of the hotel bed. Something was going to happen tonight. The men from downstairs had been a little too interested in he and Hinata. Besides, he knew he recognized their leader, although he couldn't remember from where. They were after something and although Sasuke didn't know what it was, he didn't care either. They were a nuisance and if they attacked him he'd deal with them swiftly to avoid any delays in making the boat tomorrow. As if on cue, Sasuke's door was ripped from its hinges.

Ginru rushed through the doorway locking eyes with the now terrified young ninja that was scrambling to get off the bed.

Ginru pounced on Sasuke, using his large hands to grab and squeeze Sasuke head like a balloon. Ginru could hear Sasuke's muffled screams against his hand.

Ginru laughed to himself. The kid wasn't so tough now. The whole "cooler than you" look he had in the lobby earlier was now replaced with pitiful cries for help.

Watching the young ninja writhe for freedom against Ginru's superior strength was fun, but he wasn't their target and Musaki had told him that killing the boy needed to be done quickly just incase the two were not alone.

Orders were orders. Ginru pulled his arm back, dragging Sasuke's body in the process, and with all his might Ginru slammed Sasuke's skull into the ground, crushing it against the floor.

"Too bad for you kid…" Ginru said as he got off the ground. Another job well done, and if Ginru was luck maybe Tsuka hadn't finished yet and he could—

"Chidori…" Ginru looked over to the dead kid on the ground. He was still there, blood oozing from his crushed skull. But Ginru was sure he'd heard him say something.

The room didn't start to fade away until after Ginru could feel the tightening in his chest. He wondered what the hell was going on. Had he been drugged? No, this was something different. Quickly he looked back to the dead ninja, but this time there was no one there.

"What the hell is going on?" Ginru asked to the air. It was then Ginru noticed that during his state of confusion the room had completely changed from what it was a moment ago. Broken furniture had been restored, craters and holes in the walls and floor had been completely vanished. It was as if Ginru's entire violent display of his own power had never happened. The tight feeling in Ginru's chest was pretty painful now. So painful that Ginru looked down at himself to ensure that he was still in one piece.

Unfortunately for him he wasn't.

Impaled right through the middle of his rib cage, Ginru had a single bolt of chakra-induced lightening protruding out of his chest. Behind Sasuke stood, already uninterested in the dying villain standing in front of him.

Understanding finally dawned in Ginru in his last moments. He was unsure how, but this kid had trapped him in a Genjutsu. The Genjutsu had immobilized him leaving him open to such a deadly blow.

The feeling in Ginru's legs disappeared and he stumbled a bit before falling down to his knees. He remembered the argument with Tsuka just a few days ago. Tuska had been right, all his strength and speed had been useless against Sasuke. As Ginru took in his final breathe all he could concern himself with was if Musaki had had enough time to setup his own trap against the young and powerful ninja.

"I told him not to underestimate you." Musaki appeared in the doorway as Ginru dropped to the ground. "My name is –"

"Get the hell out." Sasuke cut Musaki off as he dragged Ginru's enormous body towards the small hotel room closet. The room was still intact save the broken door. However, someone might browse the halls at night and a dead body might raise some unwanted attention. Sasuke stuffed Ginru's corpse into the closet, then preceded back to his bed for some much needed rest.

Flustered from Sasuke's complete dismissal Musaki cleared his throat to gain Sasukes attention, an action that proved to be unwise.

"I said, get the hell out." The first time had been a warning. The second time Musaki's throat met with cold, sharp steel.

"Aren't you at least curious who I am?" Musaki continued.

"No." Sasuke retorted as he used his katana to guide Musaki back out of the entrance.

"Fine then, I'll go, but for your girlfriends sake you'd better hope she as skilled a fighter as you are. If not then I will have gained my prize regardless of if you spoke to me or not. Well at least now it'll be a two way split." Musaki said as he turned to down the hall way.

His timing had been perfect for right after he'd began to head down the hallway there was a loud crash that came from Hinata's room. The momentary look of alarm on Sasuke's face vanished as he turned from Hinata's door back to Musaki. Musaki merely shrugged at the silent accusation.

"That unfortunate little girl. Usually Tsuka likes to torment and flay his victims before he…you know." Musaki turned his back to Sasuke and began to walk away, it was a risky bluff considering his opponent, but worth the danger. Musaki didn't even finish his first step before Sasuke grabbed him by the back of his shirt and threw him against the wall.

"Who are you?" Sasuke asked as he grazed Musaki's adam's apple with the tip of his kunai.

"Hmm, from sword to kunai. I see you favor a more personal kill when the girl is involved. Interesting." That wasn't all that Musaki had divined from Sasuke's actions. The boy's eyes had changed as well. He knew he had looked familiar and now he remembered where he had seen his face.

"You are Lord Orochimaru's vessel." Musaki said as with a rising smile. Those eyes were the eyes of the Sharingan. He had seen them many years ago when the boy first entered Lord Orochimaru's hidden compound. "You are Uchiha Sasuke."

"Orochimaru is dead." Sasuke spat out. If this was some sort of revenge for him killing Orochimaru then Sasuke would kill Musaki then help Hinata, but that had been years ago. He couldn't imagine why anyone would want to take revenge for Orochimaru now.

"Yes, I know. That's not why I'm here. You see, your girlfriend is a Hyuuga." Musaki left the rest open to interpretation. He could see as realization dawned over Sasuke.

All this had bee over Hinata's eyes? He didn't have time for this. Sasuke rolled his eyes as he dropped the knife from Musaki's throat.

"Your friend won't kill Hinata. After he's dead, leave us alone." Sasuke ended the conversation as he walked over to Hinata room.

The room was empty, but the window was broken. Clearly, they'd taken this fight outside. Sasuke looked down to the ground that was twenty feet below before jumping out of the window as well.

--

Turns out the forest had not been such a good idea after all. Tsuka had rushed Hinata and she parried by backup to the window. Both he and her crashed through, and fell to the ground below. Afterward, Hinata had run into the forest, hoping that the trees would give her enough cover to escape or at least enough time to alert Sasuke somehow. Once inside the forest Naruto closed in on Hinata quickly, slicing his kunai across her back. Hinata fell to the ground, but recovered quickly. She held her kunai up defensively against Naruto, still unable to attack him.

Naruto's eyes caringly regarded Hinata's injured body. He took a step forward holding out his hand for Hinata to take.

"You're injured. Let me help you." Naruto's voice was so soft and gentle that Hinata had to shake away the urge to go to him.

"Y-Y-You are not Naruto-kun." She said more to herself than to the person standing in front of her.

"That's nonsense Hina-chan. Come over her, you're gonna bleed to death." Naruto continued.

Hina-chan. That was Naruto's pet name for her. Again Hinata lost herself in the confusion of Naruto's words. Her body relaxed and the kunai in her hand dropped a few inches. Stupid. Naruto capitalized on Hinata uncertainty again, this time cutting her along both her right side and back again as well as head-butting her in the face.

Hinata hit the ground hard. That last blow had left her dazed and she was unsure if she was going to be able to recover. She looked around the forest for some place to hide and her heart soared with relief as she spotted Sasuke coming up to her location.

Sasuke found Hinata and Musaki's other henchman shortly after entering the forest. Hinata had been beaten up pretty badly and Sasuke was surprised to see that Musaki's companion didn't look like he'd had a scratch on him.

"What the hell is she doing?" Sasuke asked the air and was a bit surprise when he got an answer back.

"Ah, looks like Tsuka's ability works even against a Byakugan user." Musaki said cheerfully as he strolled up behind Sasuke.

"Ability?" Sasuke questioned.

"Yes. You see Tsuka has the ability to disguise himself against any opponent he touches." Musaki explained.

"How?" Sasuke asked as he watched Tsuka advance on the prone Hianta.

"Well I'm not quite sure. I think whenever his skin comes in contact with another person he forces a bit of his chakra into them. This string of chakra travels up along their nervous system, back to their brain and records whatever activity it can. Usually it records the electrical impulses in the part of the brain that controls memories. Now after that I have no idea, but I do know that Tsuka usually takes the form of who ever that person thinks about the most." Musaki finished.

For a brief moment, Sasuke panicked. He took a step towards Hinata. He needed to save her because he now understood why Tsuka had been unharmed while Hinata had been ravaged. Hinata would never harm Naruto. Sasuke needed to get her out of there before she got killed.

But Sasuke never made it past his first step towards Hianta. He steeled himself, his calm attitude taking over once more.

"You might want to get in there." Musaki goaded.

"She can take care of herself." Sasuke said as he turned around and headed back to his hotel room. He stopped as he passed by Musaki, "Interfere and I'll kill you both." Sasuke said before continuing away from the fight.

Musaki simply laughed, "I wouldn't dream of it." Musaki was not one to pass up a chance on misplaced faith. When Tsuka killed the girl they'd have her eyes and it didn't look as if Sasuke was going to do anything about it. If not then Tsuka would be dead as well and he'd have their shares of the money from their last job. Win win.

Why was he walking away?! Hinata's mind raced with questions as she watched Sasuke turn and leave her to fight alone. Did he not see who she was fighting against? How could he just leave her here to be killed by Naruto?

Hinata hurried to get off the ground. Her outfit had been soaked with her own blood and now her vision was blurry from its lost. She had to keep her left eye closed as blood from a cut above her eye leaked across her face. All that and she still had to cradle her left side to minimize the pain from her broken ribs.

She pointed her kunai at Naruto. She was going to have to do something or Naruto was going to kill her. The thought sounded so strange coming out that it somehow put Hinata at ease. Naruto would never hurt her, she knew that.

"Hiiinnaa-chan." Naruto called out annoyed. He motioned for her to put her weapon down as he took another step towards her.

Hinata's hand trembled as she kept the kunai pointed at the imposter. Finally he rushed her again swinging widely in an attempt to decapitated Hinata. She ducked creating an opening against the Naruto look-a-like.

Hinata hesitated, Naruto had swung the kunai too wide and if she struck now she could kill him in one blow. But that meant killing Naruto, something Hianta was not prepared for. It didn't matter if this person wasn't Naruto. They were too much alike for Hinata to ever cause harm to him. She couldn't do it, she couldn't kill him.

Not learning from his first mistake Tsuka took another wide swing at Hinata's throat and she ducked under that one as well. As Tsuka attacked, Hianta caught a glimpse of his face. The hate and the malice that was vibrantly displayed was completely foreign to the face she remembered. The soft, gentle smile that Hinata had been hypnotized with had only been there when they were face to face. But this was his true face, a face that enjoyed tormenting Hinata as he got closer and closer to killing her.

Hinata's body was on auto pilot. She countered Naruto's clumsy attack with a fatal cut across his abdomen. The laceration spayed Naruto's blood across Hinata's face and she used her hand to clear it from her eyes. Not even in death did Tsuka's genjutsu wear off, so only Naruto's body fell to the ground dead at Hinata's feet. She had killed him, but she feared she was going to die too. She was sapped of her strength. She didn't even have enough to continue standing. The forest began to fade to darkness as Hinata fell forward from unconsciousness. But she never hit the ground. Again, Sasuke caught her, quietly hoisting her onto his back as he carried her out of the forest.

--

Kakashi hummed a pleasant tune as he diligently packed more mud onto his makeshift dam. The stream that Kakashi was building the dam against was not a very steep one. It had to be two or three feet deep at the most, hardly enough for anyone to drown in unless you had your entire body buried underground, leaving only your head in the path of the stream water. This unfortunately was the case for Mujink Odoma.

Odoma was a part of a special ops team for the Rain village. He was on his way back to the village when he and his partner were blindsided by the copy-cat ninja. Odoma searched around for his partner, hoping that he would be able to help Odoma out of the ground so that they both could escape, but he was no where to be found.

"What have you done with Kenzo?" Odoma questioned.

Kakashi ignored him, choosing to finish his dam instead of dignifying Odoma with a response just yet. Kakashi loved the sounds that stemmed from this little forest. Here in the land between nations forestry wasn't as abundant as it was in the land of fire, but the little amount of forest growth that it did have seemed to be thriving with life. He listened cheerfully at the sounds of chirping birds and they sang there song just as he was doing.

Finally Kakashi was finished with the dam. The water behind the mud barrier began to rise slowly, building up against the dam walls since it lacked any other outlet. The rise was slow enough, and Kakashi would have more than enough time to gather the information that he needed. Since Kakashi left Konoha he'd been in contact with quite a few people. Some were willing to answer his questions, while other had to be persuaded much like Odoma would have to be.

Kakashi clasped his hands together, comically knocking away some of the dirt from his gloves.

"There are a few things I'd like to ask you." Kakashi said to Odoma.

"Where is Kenzo?" Odoma yelled. He turned his head from right to left seeing if there was any sign of his partner. Even if it were just a head at least then he and Odoma would be in the same situation and would have a better chance of figuring out a way out of it.

"Your friend is dead." Kakashi said flatly, "As you will be if you don't answer my questions." The cheeriness in Kakashi's voice had ceased, his words were now curt and to the point.

"I-I don't know anything about what happened!" Odoma spat out. Odoma knew of the Copy-cat ninja, who didn't? He was one of Konoha's elite. Hell he was one of the ninja world's elite. The stories about Kakashi were intimidating, but they didn't do him enough justice.

Kakashi was as scary as hell.

Odoma certainly wasn't the strongest ninja in Rain, but he and Kenzo were special ops, a title not given to just anyone in the Rain village. They were strong, but Kakashi was levels beyond their abilities. The two had been traveling in a tight knit pair when Kakashi appeared. Odoma had been knocked out, and when he woke he had been placed in this underground prison.

"I haven't asked you a question yet, but you already don't know anything?" Kakashi asked, mocking Odoma's panicked response. Kakashi made his way over to Odoma, taking a seat next to his exposed head. He opened his palm in front of Odoma, revealing its contents, which were a number of sebon with tiny little balls attached to them.

"Was Pein in the Fire Country looking for Naruto?" Kakashi asked Odoma.

"I-I-I don't know! The kid was a Jinchuriki! They are all being hunted by Atatsuki! They were bound to come looking for him!" Odoma confessed.

Kakashi shook his head, "That's not what I heard," Kakashi tossed on of the sebon to the outer edge of his damn. The small ball that was attached began to fizzle, eventually causing a small explosion. The explosion caused a small section of Kakashi's dam to collapse, sending water rushing out of its side and down the path. Odoma finally understood his situation, either he tells Kakashi what he wanted to hear or drown.

"If you kill me then you'll never know what I know." Odoma bluffed.

"Then that means I'll have to wait for another special ops team, but it's you're life." Kakashi picked himself up off the ground. He pulled his hand back to throw all the explosive sebon towards his dam. Kakashi had killed his partner without hesitation, there was no reason that Odoma wouldn't share the fate. Odoma wasn't sure if he was ready to give his life for Rain. He had a wife, and wanted kids someday, and he had heard the Kakashi was a lenient man so maybe if he told him what he knew, Kakashi would spare his life.

"Alright someone contracted Atasuki for an assassination. I don't know who the buyer was, but I do know two things. The person who paid for Atasuki's services was from Kohona and their target was not Naruto." Odoma said as he watched Kakashi's reaction.

Kakashi thought about this new information. He had already known that someone had paid Atasuki but he hadn't known the buyers origin or the target. Why would someone from Kohona want to kill Sakura? Kakashi had gotten more questions than he had answers. He needed to get back to the Hokage, the two of them needed to figure some things out. Kakashi didn't understand the Tsunade's cryptic "Things were happening message" before, but he understood now. She must have had some information about Naruto and Sakura's death that she wasn't sharing.

"…now please just let me go." Kakashi hadn't been paying attention to whatever Odoma had been saying. It didn't matter, Kakashi couldn't risk Odoma getting back to the Rain village. Even if he could Kakashi wasn't in the mood for leniency, especially not to ninja of Rain.

"Wait! What are you doing?" Odoma screamed as Kakashi lauched all the remaining sebon at the dam wall. Kakashi didn't bother to respond. Instead he began his journey back to Konoha, choosing to put distance between himself and the gargled sounds of the drowning Rain nin.

--

Hinata's eyes fluttered open as they adjusted to the soft glow of candlelight. Her mind was hazy, slow to recall her last memories or discern how she arrived in this room. She wiggled her fingers and her toes confirming that everything was still in tact. Whatever it was that she had been resting on was incredibly comfortable, leaving Hinata with no rush to get up from such cozy bedding. Inspecting her surrounding could wait a just bit longer. Instead Hinata just moved her head from side to side, taking in all that she could peripherally.

A bed, table and two chairs were all that filled the small room that was lit by a few well placed candles. Hinata could see a small mound of dark material littered on the ground next to her bed. She eyed it noticing the familiarity. After a few moments she realized that the mound had once been her shirt.

Naruto's cold, lifeless eyes filled her imagination as she remembered the last moments before she passed out. Hinata shuddered, forcing herself to keep down the bile and stomach acid that was forcing itself up her throat. Naruto's face was still fresh in her mind. The way his eyes began to gaze over before his body had even hit the ground, or the slow recession of his smile as his life left him. It was bad enough that she had to relive the love of her life's death, but the second time she'd been the one to kill him. The fact left her cold and hollow. She shuttered against the imagined cold, wrapping her arms tightly around her knees as she curled into herself.

The rusted metal door creaked open and Sasuke walked in saying nothing as he placed a tray of food down on the table. He moved over to Hinata placing a roll of bandages down on the bed.

"I'm sure you can handle this now." Sasuke said a he pointed to Hinata's chest.

Hinata looked down, then over to the clothes that were on the floor, and finally back to Sasuke. She had completely forgotten that she had taken some serious wounds before she passed out. Her chest had been neatly wrapped in bandages. Upon further examination Hinata found that each of her cuts had been sutured close. Hinata's entire body turned red when she realized who her nurse had been.

Once again Sasuke had taken care of her. He carried her to this place, bandaged her and even got her some food. Hinata sat up on the bed and turned to face Sasuke who was obviously just as uncomfortable as she was. Sasuke had his head turned, staring at the door hard enough to burn a hole through it. Again Hinata and Sasuke found themselves saturated in uncomfortable silence.

"You didn't kill Naruto." Sasuke said. When he received no response from Hinata Sasuke turned to face her and was met with her head burying itself in his chest.

Hinata balled her fist and pounded them against Sasuke as she sobbed uncontrollably against his abdomine. Unable to hold back the avalanche of emotions she felt from having to kill Naruto, Hinata let everything out in front of Sasuke.

Hinata's muffled cries and screams reminded Sasuke of his own childhood. Twice he had been made to relive the deaths of his entire clan. Sasuke knew Hinata's feelings intimately. He wanted to tell her what she was feeling was rage and that rage could be honed, and sharpened into a deadly weapon. But instead Sasuke just stood there watching Hinata until her cries softened and she had fallen back asleep.

* * *

A/N: Well i certainly hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Again (as always) many thanks to A. E. Stover for beta'ing as well as the all the gammar lessons. Unfortunately, it'll be a little while before i release chapter 7 due to the holidays and all. But the wait wont be nearly as long as last time. (hopefully ^.^;;)


	7. VII

Chapter 7

The rhythmic swaying of the ship gently woke Hinata out of her deep slumber. Her eyes slowly opened to take in the dismal, yet familiar surroundings of rust colored bulkheads and leaky, iron pipeline. She was alone, and the absence of Sasuke perpetuated her loneliness.

She eased out of the bed expecting an onslaught of pain from her numerous injuries, but none came. Though delighted that she had been healed, the troubling thought of just how long she'd been asleep to illicit such recovery caused Hinata to quickly dress herself with whatever she could find in the room before heading to the door.

Sasuke hung over the ledge of the tanker with a kunai held in both his hands along with one clenched in his mouth. With his left leg wrapped around the guardrail for support, he scanned the cloudy blue seawater for signs or life. He launched the first of his three kunai into the water, impaling an unsuspecting fish through the side and effectively hooking him to the kunai that was attached to a line. Sasuke didn't bother to turn around as he heard the loud wail of the door behind him. The timid footfalls were enough to guess who had finally woken up. There was no need for a greeting. Besides, she was probably hungry.

Hinata stood in the door frame, silent as Sasuke worked. His eyes scanned the water's surface meticulously until he saw the faintest silver of movement. Hinata admired Sasuke's movements which she could only describe as efficient, never too much or too little in his actions to strike the helpless fish below. She couldn't help herself but to be impressed.

Finally the fish were caught, and after several minutes of oxygen deprivation, they were all dead and ready to be cooked as their evening meal. Sasuke jumped over the rail finally facing Hinata, who regarded him with a modest nod. He replied with a momentarily confused expression before returning back to the ever present emotionless face. Sasuke laid out a few pieces of dry deadwood and Hinata tickled herself trying to figure out just how he manage to stash firewood on a boat that was in the middle of the sea. A miniature Katon, a few minutes of cooking time, and Hinata was on the receiving end of a delicious looking fish feast.

"How long have I been sleeping?" Hinata asked, breaking the rhythmic chewing sounds that filled their silence once before.

"Three days." Sasuke replied before taking another bite of his fish.

"Thank you…for everything." Hinata said in a faint whisper.

"You owe me a gi." Sasuke retorted, pointing his fish carcass towards Hinata's chest.

Confused, Hinata looked down to see that she had thoughtlessly put his gi on to cover her otherwise exposed chest. The purple gi was now blotted with rust colored stains that Hinata could only assume was her blood. She blushed, looking down at the fire as she remembered that Sasuke had taken off almost all her clothes in order to treat her injuries.

Sasuke didn't bother to comment on Hianta's obvious embarrassment and instead, rose up from their eating area to douse the fire with a small pale of salt water and headed to the room that Hinata had just exited from. Hinata quickly finished her meal and followed suit. Once both were inside Hinata was hit with a wave of déjà vu and she found herself wondering once again where Sasuke was going to sleep.

Rolling his eyes from Hinata's momentary glace and her nervous finger pointing Sasuke simply responded with, "Chair," as he took a seat in one of the table chairs and began to find a comfortable method to sleep.

"We'll be arriving tomorrow. Get some rest, Orochimaru's hideout is difficult to access, we'll need to approach carefully." Sasuke added before putting his head down.

"Not now Naru-chan…" Hinata mumbled as Sasuke gently tugged her shoulder. Sasuke rolled his eyes, his patience already draining out of him in the early hours of night. His second tug was not nearly as gentle and threatened to pull her off the bed and on to the floor. Hinata quickly jumped up from the bed, and in the pitch black room she glared at Sasuke's general direction.

"It's time to go." Sasuke said as his light footsteps trailed off in the direction of the door.

The cold, sea air had gone from brisk to unforgiving as the barge approached the Kiri shore. Hinata shivered pulling the edges of Sasuke's gi closer. She guiltily turned to Sasuke who she was sure was freezing in the frigid winds, but he seemed unaffected. Oh well, she thought as she huffed out a breath, watching as it dissipated in front of her.

The deep cry of the boat horn signaled Hinata and Sasuke's departure. They both jumped from the boat landing a few feet from the shoreline, far enough away to avoid the crowds of departing travelers.

"We need to hurry. The entrance will only be available during dusk and will only remain open for a small window of time. We'll go into town tomorrow morning and pick up supplies. After we find what we're looking for we'll head to Amegakure." Sasuke instructed Hinata and the two of them began their brisk journey atop the water towards the face of Kiri's rocky cliffs.

--

Kakashi rubbed the back of his neck to fight the encroaching numbness from his fingertips. The unrelenting night winds violently pushed leaves and tree branches back and forth along Konoha's entrance road. Kakashi ignored the writhing trees as the struggled to keep their limbs from being torn off by the fierce weather. The harsh wind threatened to chill Kakashi right down to the bone. It had been while since Konoha had had such terrible weather and dangerous wind like this was always a bad omen. Nevertheless, Kakashi continued to advance towards the Leaf village at a leisurely pace. He could see Konoha's entrance gates and just the sight of his home village was warming enough to fight the chilly air that was clawing at his skin.

Kakashi had been traveling nonstop since his encounter with Odoma. His urge to speak to the Hokage had been so great that he'd foregone any stops for rest. He was hungry, tired and in desperate need of a bath, but he was almost there and sight of his village renewed his vigor to speak to Tsunade about the information he'd learned. Kakashi approached, but sight of the three ninja that had suddenly appeared in front of Konoha's gate kicked the pep in Kakashi's step clean out from under him. He groaned internally, but kept his annoyance to himself as he just continued to walk nonchalantly towards Konoha. Kakashi was on high alert once he was close enough to recognize the faces of the human blockade. Danzo stood at the mouth of the entrance gates, flanked by two other members of Root along with three more that were hidden inside the forest surrounding Kakashi.

Kakashi didn't need to guess why they were here. Danzo had made it his specialty in knowing whenever any ninja was entering or leaving the village. There was no doubt that Kakashi's unexplained absence would catch the eye of the Root member. It was no secret that Danzo regarded Kakashi as both a threat to Root and a powerful ninja, but the five man cell that was currently guarding him had Kakashi worried that Danzo had come for more than just an interrogation.

"Danzo." Kakashi greeted the Root leader as he approached.

"Kakashi," Danzo replied. He waited until Kakashi tried to pass before beginning his questioning. "I noticed that you have not been in the village for the last few days, yet there are no records of you taking on any missions. Might I ask where you've been these past few days?" Danzo asked politely.

"You could ask." Kakashi answered, taking another step forward, but stopping as Danzo put his hand out in front of him.

"We're not done yet Kakashi." Danzo warned, "I'll ask again. Where have you b—"

"Last time I checked, you were not the Hokage." Kakashi cut him off, sidestepping his hand as he continued to walk forward.

All five of Danzo's accompanying Root members blocked Kakashi's path. Kakashi knew he was in danger. He was only a few feet from being inside Konoha's walls, but that distance made all the difference. If Danzo's men attacked here they'd be too much to Kakashi to handle in his tired state, and the possibility of back up arriving would be slim. Most likely, Danzo and his men had already taken care of the gate guards, so no one inside Konoha would be wise to anything that happened in the forest just outside of the entrance.

"Answer my question Kakashi." Danzo's raised voice betrayed his impatience and Kakashi realized that time was of the essence for Danzo.

"There is no need for me to answer anything." Kakashi responded curtly and Danzo's men inched forward in response. Kakashi calculated his odds against the five Root members and Danzo. Those odds weren't very high but if Danzo needed to act quickly lest be discovered interrogating a high ranking Jounin then Kakashi merely needed to survive.

Kakashi slowly pulled up his hiate, revealing his Sharingan and signaling to Danzo that he was through answering his questions. Danzo simply shook his head. A last warning to Kakashi that things would not end here as he hopes they will. The Root memebers took an offensive stance, brandishing various weapons of choice as they surrounded the Copy-Cat ninja. Kakashi simply responded with a single kunai. Speed and mobility would be in strength in a fight against the five opponents, which meant this fight would favor hand-to-hand over the use of jutsus.

"There is no need for your own bloodshed Kakashi. My goal is only to protect Konoha." said Danzo, but he received no reply. Instead Kakashi simply focused on the targets around him cautiously awaiting the first attack. All seven men stood frozen, strategically waiting for the combat to begin.

The Root member behind Kakashi was the first to attack. He was clever, standing in Kakashi's blind spot as to avoid being seen. But Kakashi had been one step ahead of him, anticipating an attack from behind Kakashi had been listening for movement behind him. When the sound from the Root ninja's movements betrayed him Kakashi was quick to spin around to counter. The result would have been his downfall. Kakashi had underestimated Root. When he turned to face the Root ninja behind him that was thought to be attacking, he found that it had merely been a feint which left Kakashi with his back turned and wide open for attack. It was a foolish move which he blamed on fatigue from all his traveling. With no time to counter or dodge, Kakashi couldn't do anything other than brace himself for injury.

Luckily, providence came in the form of a firm grip wrapped around the attacking Root ninja's wrist. It was ANBU. The mask worn by the ANBU who held the Root member in place resembled the face of a raven, but the eyes had been whited out. Kakashi recognized the Pale-eyed Raven. It was Neji, and he had brought a small armada with him consisting of several ANBU along with the Hokage herself.

"Is there a problem here Danzo?" Tsunade questioned. She kept her voice soft and calm, but her trembling fist gave her anger away. She was ready to crush Danzo and found the only thing holding her back the sliver of reasoning that Neji had given her before they came to Kakashi's rescue.

"_We need to know Danzo's involvement with the Atasuki, but Danzo is a seasoned and highly skilled ninja. I'm sure that if we captured him he would give nothing away to us. We need to let him move freely."_

"Tch," Danzo spat as he turned and headed back into the village, his Root ninja following closely behind. Time had run out and whatever information the Copy-Cat ninja had learned Danzo would just have to wait to find out. For now he needed to retreat back to Root headquarters and plan his next move.

Four ANBU ninjas guarded Kakashi at each of his corners, boxing him in as if he was a prisoner of war. The sharp clicks of Tsunade's heels against the linoleum floor echoed throughout the small dark hallway, setting a brisk, militant pace for both Kakashi and his guards. Kakashi knew where this hallway led. He'd been down it many times when he was a member of Konoha's elite ANBU squad. It was the entrance to the interrogation room.

"Am I a prisoner?" Kakashi joked, but when he received no answer he began to question the reasons behind his rescue from Danzo and Root. Konoha's main interrogation room was a spacious loft with more than twenty square feet of 'breathing' room and it was equipped with a one sided mirror, microphones, and even had a window. This was not that room. Kakashi was ushered into a cramped eight by eight cell that with only one exit and entry point. There were no windows, no place to hide a microphone, and no where to sit. Tsunade waited till the last of the ANBU guards left the room where she then closed the door behind them, locking it as she turned to face Kakashi.

"What the hell—" Kakashi began but he was cut off by Tsunade.

"What do you know?" she asked making it clear that she wasn't giving up anything until she knew what Kakashi had discovered first.

"I know about Sakura." Kakashi answered vaguely as he fished for more information, but Tsunade didn't take the bait. Instead she stayed silent waiting to see if Kakashi would continue, when he didn't she rolled her eyes and leaned in closer to him.

"We know who hired Atasuki to assassinate Sakura." Tsunade said in a hushed whisper.

"Danzo." Kakashi had already speculated, and after Danzo welcome home party Kakashi was certain that Danzo was up to something.

"We thought that Danzo contracted Atasuki to kill Sakura and in exchange he would provide them with Naruto, but now that Pein killed them both, we have no idea what Danzo is planning.

"Could Naruto's death have been an accident?" Kakashi asked, but he had already known the answer. Pein was a high skilled ninja. Naruto's death would not have been an accident.

"No Pein meant to kill them both, we just don't know why." Tsunade affirmed. Both she and Kakashi paced around the small room brainstorming the link between Danzo and the Atasuki.

"What the hell is this place anyway?" Kakashi asked, breaking the long stretch of uneventful silence.

"Oh, this is a special room I had built in case we needed to interrogate someone without letting the information leak to anyone outside of these walls." Tsunade enlightened Kakashi.

Before opening the door to the insolated room that she and Kakashi had spent the last few hours, there was one more thing that she needed to speak to Kakashi about.

"I gave you a mission." She uttered in a low voice. Kakashi could feel the temperature in the room drop a few degrees along with Tsunade's volume. With all the distractions that had gone on since he'd been back to Konoha, Kakashi had forgotten that he had both abandoned a mission and disobeyed Tsunade's direct orders that no one would pursue Pein.

"I'm sorry Hokage-sama," Kakashi began, but Tsunade put her hand up to silence him.

"Our enemy is not from another hidden village. They're not strangers who will fight against us having only heard or read about what we are capable of as ninjas. They will be from right here, they will have trained as we trained and lived the same lives we do. Now more than ever I need people I can depend on, people I can trust." Tsunade said, her head hung low in disappointment.

"Understood Hokage-sama." Kakashi mumbled. The shock of his actions began to seep in. He had disgraced his name and now may have caused unnecessary trouble to the Hokage by not keeping a watchful eye on Sasuke.

"Find Hinata and Sasuke and warn them that they may be in danger." Tsunade ordered before opening the door and exiting the room.

--

There was hardly anything Orochimaru wasn't able to execute to perfection. he mastered countless jutsu. He beguiled everyone he met into unquestionable submission. He even overcame death. But apparently the only thing that Orochimaru could do better than manipulate was hide.

Hinata stood with her eyes wide and her mouth open as she stared at the vast four story building buried beneath the simple oak tree above. Hinata and Sasuke had arrived at the Orochimaru's hidden Kiri base a few moments before the allotted entry time had expired. Upon arrival to the small opening, no larger than the mouth of a toilet, Sasuke simply told her to watch her step as he dropped in first. Not knowing what to expect, Hinata simply followed suit and was unprepared for the forty foot dropped that followed. In the end, after an embarrassing landing and a quiet apology to Sasuke for landing atop of him, she found herself breathlessly gaping at Orochimaru's craftsmanship.

Sasuke took the lead and, without invitation, grabbed Hinata's hand and delved into the inner sanctum of Orochimaru's lair. Sasuke had been here before, he'd spent most of his second year with Orochimaru in this very base. Here was where the Snake kept all of his precious knowledge. Sasuke had seen books and scrolls on just about everything; if Orochimaru had anything on Pein, he knew this was where he'd find it.

Vacant room after vacant room passed Hinata and Sasuke by as they searched for Orochimaru's information cache. Each room looked pretty much the same, one bed, and a desk with an oil lamp to provide dim lighting. After the fourth or fifth turn through the maze of hallways Hinata stopped, pulling her hand away from Sasuke's as she walked into what looked to be Orochimaru's kitchen area.

"We need to keep moving." Sasuke said flatly as he went to grab Hinata's hand once more.

"We need to eat too. Go and find what you can on Pein. I will see if there is something we can make to eat," Hinata said as she evaded Sasuke's hand. She took a few more steps into the kitchen, but paused to give Sasuke an apologetic look. "Please," she added. Sasuke rolled his eyes, but left Hinata in the kitchen in pursuit of their greater goal.

After three hours of searching, Sasuke finally found Orochimaru's library, but to his dismay, it was just the beginning of his search. The library was a two story warehouse with books, scrolls and random papers everywhere. Strange for a man that was so well organized to keep such one of his most important areas in such disarray, Sasuke thought as he maneuvered his way across the library in search of some information on Pein and the Atasuki.

After an hour of fruitless searching through one of the sections of Orochimaru's library Sasuke's nose was tickled with the smell of roasted onions and carrots. Apparently Hinata must have found something edible in the abandoned kitchen. Sasuke took in the sweet smell of home cooked food, a scent that had been all but lost to him since sadly Sakura was a disaster in the kitchen. Sasuke's nose guided him through the maze of corridors, back to the origin of the delicious smells that pervaded all throughout the hideout.

Roasted onions, garlic and carrots, spiced with something Sasuke failed to recognize, freshly prepared over a small bowl of udon noodles. Hinata sat at the table exhausted smiling at the poorly hidden shock on Sasuke's face. He walked up to the table bringing his bowl from the opposite end of the table where Hinata had placed it with him. Taking a seat next to Hinata, Sasuke slowly tasted the meal Hinata had prepared. After his first taste Sasuke looked over to Hinata, giving her a faint smirk of approval.

"Did you find the library?" Hinata asked, breaking the silence between the two.

"Yes." Sasuke responded between bites before he resumed eating.

Hinata looked down at her food nervously. In the four hours she had spent alone in the kitchen he had made up her mind that she and Sasuke would have some sort of conversation that night. Not that she minded the silence at all. In fact, the atmosphere was nicer when neither of the two were talking than it had been during conversation. But after that night on the tanker Hinata could not help but feel that Sasuke wasn't as cold as he made himself out to be. He had stayed there and let her cry in his arms, an act she was sure that no one other than Sakura had a claim to. Maybe if she could get him to at least talk to her then they could become friends and not just two people whose loved ones had been friends.

"Did you find anything on Pein?" Hinata continued.

"No," was all Sasuke answered.

"Um… So what now?" Hinata asked catching herself before her nervous finger touching began.

"I'll keep looking." Sasuke finished his food and stood up from the table reaching his hand out for Hinata's bowl as well.

"No, no I can—" Hinata began but Sasuke cut her off with on of his 'do what I say now' looks. Hinata handed him her bowl and Sasuke took them both to the sink.

Hinata remained seated at the table as Sasuke began to wash the dishes. She huffed out a determined breath and continued her attempt at conversation.

"Thank you. Naruto was never good at doing the dishes." Hinata joked nervously.

Sasuke kept his back turned focusing on the current task at hand as he replied, "Yeah well, that's better than Sakura. She couldn't cook at all so there was never a need for dirty dishes."

Although stunned by Sasuke's nonchalant response, Hinata continued the conversation, "Really? I would have never imagined Sakura as not being able to cook."

"Yeah…"After finished the dishes Sasuke headed back towards the library. He turned to follow to tell Hinata to come with him but she was already behind him waiting for him to lead the way.

After seeing so much of Orochimaru's liar a lot of the fascination and wonder had already worn off making it easy for Hinata to ignore the two story library and keep her attention on the back of Sasuke's head.

"It's somewhere in here, we need to—"

"Byakugan!" Hinata yelled, activating her bloodline ability before Sasuke could even ask.

One hour turned to two, then two drew out to four and after the fifth hour Hinata collapse on one of the library's chairs. She was exhausted, but sadly she had only searched through one of the many sections in the room. Neither had found what they were looking for. Sasuke had even fallen asleep a few times, his head comically falling face first into an open book. Each time his head would stop inches short of hitting the book as Sasuke would wake up and resume reading.

Although disappointed, the night had not been a total bust. While searching for information on Pein Hinata had stumbled across an encyclopedia of Kekkei Genkai which included an entire volume about her own Byakugan.

"I'm going to bed." Sasuke announced.

"Good night Sasuke." Hinata replied earning a questionable look from Sasuke. "I think I'm going to read a little of this book first." Hinata explained.

"Tomorrow we will go back into the village and pick up supplies. This library is bigger than I remember. This may take a few days." Sasuke said with a sigh as she walked out of the library.


	8. IIX

Chapter 8

The smell of old ink and aged parchment pulled Hinata out of her sleep and back to now pitch black library. The oil lamps that had given light to the closed off library had burnt out somewhere between _The Byakugan and You!_ and _Know Thy Enemy: A Comprehensive Breakdown of All Known Elemental Jutsu Types._ Now Hinata sat in the dark, her head plastered against the book simply entitled _Hakke. _Although tired from the late night reading, Hinata found herself buzzing with excitement. She had learned much the night before and couldn't wait to put what she had learned to application.

Closing the book she quickly gathered herself and began to search for Sasuke who would no doubt be preparing to enter the closest small town for supplies. As she exited the library she was pleasantly greeted by the sweet smell of a breakfast meal. She breathed in deeply taking in the smell as much as she could as she tried to identify what Sasuke was cooking. As Hinata got closer to the kitchen her footsteps slowed as her ears picked up on one of the most usual things that Hinata had ever heard. Humming. It was low and disconnected, as if Sasuke was trying to fight the urge to express his pleasantness, but was losing the battle. Sadly as Hinata got closer the humming ended and Sasuke greeted Hinata even though she had tried her best to keep her presence a secret.

"Good morning Hinata." Sasuke turned to face Hinata with two plates of food. He placed them both down on the table next to each other and without waiting for Hinata to sit down and join him, he began eating. Hinata nodded a quick hello before taking her place next to him. She picked up her bowl, but paused, gaining Sasuke's attention.

"I, um, was wondering if you're not too busy. I was reading a few of the books in Orochimaru's library. He has a lot of books on the Hyuuga clan and I was—"

"Hinata." Sasuke cut her off, forcing her to get her words together before she spoke again.

"Right. Sorry. Will you spar with me later?" Hinata blurted out in a single breath.

Sasuke brought the bowl of now half eaten food up to his mouth, taking in another mouth full. He chewed slowly, deliberately making Hinata wait before he gave his answer. Her baited breaths, her pale fingertips from gripping her chopsticks too tightly, even the way she would look past him rather than at him when asking a question. She was still utterly uncomfortable around him and although he didn't really care about her comfort, making her as uncomfortable as possible was becoming sort of a hobby of his.

"I won't go easy on you." Sasuke finally answered and was surprised by the insulted look on Hinata's face.

"When did you go easy on me?" Hinata retorted. Hinata's hand quickly flew over her mouth, and her eyes illustrated surprise at her words. Hinata's crack at Sasuke's training had been so quick and well delivered Sasuke was caught completely off guard and a light chuckle escaped passed his iron walled demeanor. Afterwards both just sat there staring down at their respective bowls, no doubt replying the uncharacteristic exchange.

"We should get ready to go." Hinata said as she shuffled from the table.

The rest of the morning passed silently. Hinata and Sasuke traveled together without conversation to the small village that was only an hour way from Orochimaru's hideout.

"We should pick up some supplies first." Sasuke said as the two of them weaved between the crowd of local shoppers. Hinata simply followed suit trailing next to him until they reached what looked to be the general goods store. As with everything else Sasuke was methodical even while shopping. He instructed that Hinata go to the opposite end of the store and since the isles were short enough so that they could see each other over them, one only needed to hold up any questionable items and look for the others approval.

Yusera, the store's owner and clerk had been living in this small town all her life. Her father had owned this store as did his before him. The town was large enough so that business was steady, but small enough for everyone to know each other by name. Rarely were there new faces, which made the couple that had just walked in so peculiar. Yusera watched curiously as the strange couple split up at the door, moved to the opposite ends of the store, and would hold up merchandise from time to time and wait for the other's approval. The young man, dressed in a purple tank top pants and a weird purple bow picked up first aid kits, bandages, rope, tape, oil, and lamps. The girl, curiously outfitted in what looked to be nothing more than a robe and a pair of tight fitting pants, picked up vegetables, rice, noodles, fruits, flour, and sugar. Twice the young girl held up the same item repeatedly after receiving declines from her boyfriend. Once the two were done they met in the middle and inspected each other's baskets. The girl received a scowl from her boyfriend after seeing that a few of the declined items still made it into her basket.

"Good Morning," Yusera greeted the couple as they both approached the counter. The boy said nothing, choosing to simply stare at the items in his basket than engage in conversation. The girl however, nodded respectfully and returned Yusera's greeting with a soft smile. "I don't think I've seen you two around here before. Are you both new to these parts?"

"Uh, yes. We are just passing through on our way to meet family in another town close to here." Hinata lied.

"Oh well that's nice. It always nice to see young couples traveling together," Yusera leaned closer to Hinata and dropped her voice to a low, but easily audible whisper, "Perhaps you should make the most of your stay here in Tanta and visit our _private _hot springs. Your boyfriend looks like he could use something to help him relax."

"T-T-Thank you." Hinata said, utterly mortified by Yusera's suggestion. The couple walked out of the store and once the store's entrance door closed behind them Sasuke took a step away from Hinata and turned his head to hide is obvious amusement. Hinata kept herself at arms length away from Sasuke for the rest of their trip. Hinata also insisted that she and Sasuke part ways while she shopped for clothes.

"What did you learn from Orochimaru's books?" Sasuke asked Hinata as they traveled back to the hideout.

"I, uh, there was lots of things," Hinata stumbled on her words, shocked by Sasuke's sudden interest in her. Sasuke noticed her unease and simply dropped the subject causing Hinata to curse herself for once again missing a chance to become friendlier with Naruto's brother.

The trip back was no different than the usual. Neither Sasuke nor Hinata spoke. Hinata lost herself in thought as she recounted all the atypical behavior that Sasuke had exhibited in that past few days. He'd offered a shoulder to cry on, he complemented her cooking, –well he ate it that counted as one, she was sure- he hummed, and now he was showing interest in what she had learned from Orochimaru's books. He was definitely the polar opposite to her innocent Naruto who always wore his thoughts and feelings on his sleeves. There was never a mystery about Naruto's feelings and Hinata caught herself smiling from Sasuke's enigmatic nature.

The familiar, fortified walls of Konoha receded into nothing but a memory more than ten hours ago. Again Kakashi was on the move, his trusted summoned canine Pakkun leading the two-man pack. The stubbles from his unshaven chin dug into the nook and crannies of the linen mask that hid the lower half of his face. It reminded him of the last time he'd even had the chance to shave, or shower for that matter. Tsunade's words struck right to his core. Kakashi was not a stranger to self pity, he had spent years believing that Obito death could have been prevented if he was would have been stronger or faster. Naruto and Sakura's death was no different, and in hindsight the Copycat ninja scolded himself for allowing that sorrow to affect his duty. Tsunade had been clear that she would not accept another failure on his part. He needed to find Sasuke and Hinata as soon as possible. Only an hour ago Pakkun had returned with news that he had found a scent trail.

"_They both left over water from the port town of Kishi." Pakkun informed._

"_From there?" Kakahshi asked the canine._

"_From there I don't know. I'm a dog Kakashi, not a dolphin." He responded briskly._

"_Well," Kakashi stood up, stretching lazily before he picked up his travel bag. He had already been ready since he'd only returned to Konoha six hours ago. His travel bag only requiring a change in clothes, "I guess we should get going then. Lead the way." Kakashi said to Pakkun as he headed out of the door._

The port town of Kishi was filled with all kinds of heavenly distractions, sake, women, even a bookstore that actually had the last volume of Ichi Ichi Paradise on sale. Sadly Kakashi had plenty of time to experience it. Luck was not on Kakashi's side, as he had just missed the last boat that was leaving for the islands of Kiri. Before returning to his own plane, Pakkun had suggested that Kakashi take the boat to Kiri. Pakkun had caught Hinata's scent all the way to a hotel in Kiri, from there he found the scent of her blood which led back into the forest. The trail then backtracked from the forest to the entrance port of a trading boat whose route was from Kishi to Kiri. Having no choice other than spending the night in the lively port town Kakashi made his way back to the bookstore, containing his excitement behind the logic that if he was going to stay the night, he might as well pick up something to read.

Five Root members hid in a scattered formation about the city of Kishi, each hidden in the shadows as to not track attention to themselves from either the village natives or from their target. Hyo mocked the Root lackeys that he'd been stuck with. If they were worthy of Root they'd be standing right next to him, less than five feet away from their target, unnoticed as he was. The famous Copy Cat ninja, Hatake Kakashi. Hyo was close enough to reach out and touch the former ANBU ninja, or slit his throat if the mission called for it.

Danzo-sama had made their mission clear. They were to follow Kakashi till they led him to Sasuke's location once Kakashi began to return to Konoha Danzo had trusted them to remove what Danzo called the 'threat' to Konoha.

Kakashi brought a book from one of the book stands and proceeded to head to his hotel room. Bringing the book to his face he smiled in delight. Although he owned two copies of the volume already, the small amount of pleasure that stemmed from reading Jiraiya's last novel was enough to bring some entertainment to an otherwise boring night. He had half a mind to ask if the young Root member that was following him so closely wanted to sneak a peek, but decided against it. He was sure that the Root member really thought that he'd remained hidden in plain sight, so it was best not the burst his bubble just yet. Besides, Kakashi wasn't sure what they were after just yet, so it was best that he play along, lest the other four that were scattered amongst the city attack. There was no need for innocent people to die and Kakashi was sure that Root didn't care who they killed as long as they got their target.

Hinata swung the kunai that she had been gripping in her right hand across the place where Sasuke's face had been mere moments ago. Sasuke had been trying to teach her all day her that body movements gave away her intent so to drive the point home, he ducked low underneath her arm leaving Hinata open yet again for another attack. Sasuke used the sheathe of his katana and knocked Hinata's leg right from under her. She hit the ground with a resounding thud.

"Again!" Sasuke yelled, frustratingly. Hinata quickly rose off the ground, getting back into her familiar Jyuuken stance.

The 'spar' ended hours ago with Sasuke the clear victor, but instead of leaving her to go and look for the information that Orochimaru had on Pein, Sasuke had decided to stay and help Hinata with her training. Regrettably, Sasuke's form of teaching was a lot like Hiashi's. He'd have Hinata attack him, she would, and he'd counter, and then proceed to tell her everything she did wrong. The disheartening familiarity clawed at her concentration, causing her to make even more mistakes, which made Sasuke all the more annoyed.

Sasuke waited for Hinata's next attack, casually looking up towards the sky as if he were not expecting anything. Hinata ran forward. Her first strike was a low one, aimed at Sasuke's midsection. He parried, knocking her hand away with his forearm. Hinata followed up with another wide swing towards Sasuke's face. Just like before Sasuke ducked low, but instead of Hinata being caught by surprise she spun around quickly, her other hand armed with a kunai as it narrowed in on the front of Sasuke's neck. Not wanting to hurt him she diverted the nearly fatal blow, inches before it reached its target and was surprised at how quickly Sasuke's hand shot up to firmly grip hers.

Glaring at her angrily, Sasuke slowly moved her hand back onto its original path. "Here!" he spat before violent pushing her away, "Again!"

"I just wanted to train with you. I don't need a teacher!" Hinata yelled angrily.

"Hmp." Sasuke replied as he resumed his nonchalant stance coldly eying Hinata.

"Ugh! You are such a…a… jerk!" Hinata shouted.

She was angry again. Sasuke noted the way she tensed her calves as she raised the heels of feet. His gaze moved slowly upwards passed her toned legs. She was rocking back and worth on the balls of her feet. She always did that before whatever anger she was holding inside got released which usually ended in a real fight between them. Sasuke continued to stare at Hinata, his mind loosing focus on the fight and more on the woman in front of him. Tense, toned stomach, and femininely muscular arms. Her wide eyes blazed with fury as she leered at Sasuke, waiting for him to say something to provoke her. It was then Sasuke couldn't help himself but to notice, Hinata was down right cute when she was angry.

Both of them knew this dance already. Sasuke was going to say something that would send Hinata over the edge. Her anger would overshadow her concern for harm and the real fight would begin. It was something that Sasuke was too familiar with, but he needed Hinata fighting with that anger all the time so he goaded Hinata once more.

"Useless…" Sasuke muttered underneath his breath, but loud enough for Hinata to hear. It did the job. She hated being called useless. Hinata growled, and lunged towards Sasuke, her kunai aimed for his heart.

Sharingan already active, Sasuke read Hinata's movements. Sasuke anticipated her attack, and waited till Hinata attempted to impale him through the heart. She struck, but Sasuke countered, grabbing her wrist and twisting the kunai out of her hand. He manipulated her momentum, using Hinata's force against her. Before she knew, Sasuke had pinned Hinata between himself and a tree that was behind her.

They were close. So close that Sasuke could feel the charged, angry heaves of breath that fumed out of Hinata. She jerked violently, attempting to get free and Sasuke used his own body to keep her in place. Thoughts of their proximity passed through Sasuke mind, but he crushed those thoughts as quickly as they came. Now was not the time. If Hinata was going to fight along side him, then they both needed a clear head during battle, and Sasuke was through waiting for Hinata to get her act together.

"Now you want to fight?" Sasuke mocked and his mocking only caused Hinata to struggle more violently.

"Do you think Pien is going to give you some kind of pep talk before you fight him?" Sasuke continued, "I don't need someone that will only fight their hardest when they're angry." Hinata didn't say anything back, but she did stop writhing which meant her anger had begun to subside. Sasuke backed away from Hinata. "You need to fight like that all that time. I cannot afford to count on someone that only fights when they're feelings get hurt."

Hinata stood there, wide eyed and slack jawed, staring at Sasuke. Did he just say that he would depend on her? Sasuke replayed his words back in his head as he tried to figure out why Hinata was just standing there stupefied. He rolled his eyes when he realized where their conversation had gone astray. Although Hinata didn't strike him as the fangirl type, he was convinced he knew how the next few minutes would play out. Hinata would hymn and haw over how honored she was that he'd accepted her, making him incredibly uncomfortable. Then she would be on cloud nine and back to being utterly useless. Well that's how all the other girls, Sakura included, were whenever he showed them even an iota of praise.

However, all Sasuke got was an uppercut.

Four days stuck on a boat with five other Root members had left Hyo anxious to end his mission. His colleagues, most of whom sought praised by the higher ranked Root member, irritated him as they tirelessly tired to impress. Their target, Kakashi, was a recluse and hadn't come out of his room the entire four day boat ride, adding boredom to Hyo's list nuances.

Finally the tanker came to a bellowing halt and the captain announced that they had arrived in Kiri. Hyo and the other members of Root waited in the shadows for Kakashi to appear. A few moments passed by, followed by several minutes. When half an hour passed and there was still no sign of Kakashi, Hyo began to suspect that he and his subordinates had been duped. Hyo motioned for Kurin, the youngest and least experienced of the six open the door. Kurin, eager to please his commanding officer quickly ran to the door and picked the lock.

Foolish. Hyo thought, although in hindsight it had been the boy's ambition that led to his undoing. As soon as the door to Kakashi's room was picked the hallway was filled with smoke and chaos. The door had been rigged to explode, and in the resulting calamity Kakashi had escaped.

"After him!" Hyo shouted as he feverishly searched between the people who were getting off the boat for any signs of the silver-hair ninja.

Hinata leaned against one of the mid sized trees that decorated the roof of Orochimaru's hideout. Doubled over, and gasping for air, Hinata swelled with pride as she looked up and saw that Sasuke was doing the exact same thing. Her ribs were bruised, but not broken. She had had a few cuts along her arms, but no serious wounds. Sasuke had even used the chidori a few times, but none as deadly as the first time. He had taken it easy on her, but that their battle had been fierce none the less.

Sasuke's words had sparked fire in Hinata. The past four days had been a cohesive mixture of tranquility and rigorous training. Both Sasuke and Hinata woke up and ate together. Sasuke searched for Orochimaru's records, while Hinata trained alone. The afternoon brought lunch which was followed by an intense bout between the two. Sasuke pushed her harder each day, vigorously rehashing the dullest of skills that Hinata hadn't used in ages. Not that she'd forgotten them, but her role had always been a choice of scout or controller. Bodily locations like the jugular vein or the kidneys weren't where her focuses lied, but Sasuke sought to change all that. Determined to mold her into the best killer he could with little time, Sasuke made Hinata refocus on the basics: Stealth, combat tactics, and improvisation, each day Sasuke would stress those three. Sasuke's negativity had become rare, replaced with approving nods, and Sasuke's patented 'Good Job' smirk.

Hinata balanced herself atop of a branch deep within the forest. Distance was her advantage. She stayed well away from Sasuke until she had come up with a solid plan of attack. Before their battle today, Sasuke told her that he'd use the Sharingan against her, so she had better be ready. To Hinata, that meant mentally repeating the three basics Sasuke trained her on.

Sasuke stood in the middle of the open clearing, waiting for Hinata to strike. He couldn't sense her any longer, she was too far away and Sasuke held back the prideful smile begging to show on his face. Hinata had been his first student and he was surprised at her growth in four days. She was already a skilled ninja, so Sasuke couldn't boast that he'd turned her into an elite ninja, but her hesitation had all but disappeared and without it she was certainly a fierce fighter.

Lacking the raw power that Naruto and Sakura possessed, Hinata wasn't nearly as strong and the two, but her mind was a sponge. Everything Sasuke told her, everything she had read, Hinata found application for. Evident by his current situation, the Sharingan was an excellent advantage in a fight, but it was not for long distance attacks.

Hinata tied the last of the explosive tags to the four kunai she had placed in her pack. She thought she had a pretty good plan, but she knew better than to rely on just that. Sasuke had a knack for disrupting whatever she had planned and he made it a point to be as erratic and unpredictable as possible. Hinata waited patiently until an opening presented itself. She was about to take off towards Sasuke when six men and what looked like a dog passed into her field of vision heading directly for Sasuke.

Kakashi and Pakkun traveled between the trees as fast as their legs would carry them. They were being chased by Root. Although Kakashi was sure that he could evade them had he just laid low in the village, he was curious to know their mission. The booby trap he had left in his cabin had cut their numbers down by one. No doubt Kakashi had succeeded in pissing off the Root members, which to him, was perfect. They had already begun to make mistakes. What began as an entrapping cloud of skilled assassins had crumbled down into nothing more than a crowd of agitated ninjas. Blood thirsty, and desperate for revenge they threw away advantages like stealth and surprise as they blindly pursued him through the trees.

Finally Kakashi spotted Sasuke in the clearing. He landed, dismissing Pakkun and turned to the confused Sasuke.

"Yo." Kakashi greeted.

"What—" Sasuke began, but Kakashi cut him off.

"Later." Kakashi turned to face the six members of Root, as they were currently surrounding Sasuke and himself.

Hyo looked over to the Uchiha. He had had it with this stupid mission. What ever Kakashi was supposed to tell Sasuke was never going to happen. He was going to kill that dammed ninja here and now for humiliating him.

"Step away Uchiha. Konoha business. This has nothing to do with you." Hyo warned beneath his ANBU mask.

Sasuke gave him an unreadable look then took a step back. Kakashi rolled his eyes and returned his gaze back the Root nin.

"Kakashi, our orders were to dispose of you after you had come to do whatever it was you came here to do," Hyo said as he took a step forward, "However Danzo-sama isn't here, and you are trying my patience."

"Are you just going to stand here?" Kakashi asked Sasuke.

"Konoha business." Sasuke replied with a smirk.

"Aren't you missing someone?" Kakashi responded as he looked around for Hinata.

Sasuke simply replied by pointing at the speeding kunai that narrowly missed Hyo's left cheek. Hyo and the other members of Root all turned back in the direction of the trees while Sasuke and Kakashi jumped back to remain a safe distance away from the exploding tag that was attached to the thrown kunai. Surprised, but not defeated, all five Root members managed to scatter moments before the explosion threatened to take their lives.

Kakashi barely recognized the woman that landed in front of him. Her demeanor, completely different from the young woman that he had come to know through Naruto's social gatherings. She stalked low to the ground, another kunai in one hand, while the other, she tethered to the ground defensively.

If not for her purple hair Kakashi wouldn't have even known that it was Hinata, but then she spoke and her reserve polite tone was as familiar as the feel of his own bed, "Good afternoon, Kakashi-senpai," she said before taking off towards the befuddled Root nins. Kakashi took a step forward, ready to join closely behind Hinata in the fray, bit Sasuke halted him.

"She'll be fine." Sasuke said coolly as he leaned against a tree and waited, ignoring Kakashi's confused look.

"You promised me the power of the nine tails Madara." Danzo said as he stepped out of the shadows in the empty research facility. He and two of his finest men had accompanied him on this meeting to meet the leader of Atasuki.

Uchiha Madara stood there with his back to Danzo as he feigned surprise by his sudden appearance, "Oh Danzo. I didn't see you there."

"Don't play stupid with me Madara I know what your capable of I'm sure you knew that my two bodyguards and I were here long before now." Danzo scolded.

"Twelve." Madara corrected. There were twelve bodyguards total, two next to him five hidden in the shadows amongst the room and another five outside. Danzo had been right. He had known about them, but Madara could not pass up a chance to one-up the grumpy old man.

"The nine tails?" Danzo repeated, ignoring the remark about the number of his forces. Danzo just knew that Madara was smiling underneath that stupid mask and his blood boiled from Madara's insolence.

"I said you will get it when it is ready and it's not ready. You would commit an act of treason by meeting me here simply so I can tell you the same thing over again?" Madara mocked.

Flustered, Danzo turned away from Madara and headed for the exit. Their conversation had been short and sadly Danzo hadn't the opportunity to press the subject. Even he knew that he and his men would be no match for Madara as long as he held the nine tails power, but that was going to change. He had made a clever deal with Madara, one that he was sure he'd come out on top. Soon the power of the nine tails would be his and he would put an end to Atasuki and the Konoha of old.

Madara took the tin cup and dragged it across the metal bars of the chakra laden prison cage. He waited for his captive to wake up before greeting him cordially.

"Good Morning Naruto-san"

"Shove it four eyes." Naruto responded.

"Ah such color. I trust you're still not enjoying your stay here?" Madara continued.

"Tell me what you did with Sakura?" Naruto asked. He asked this question every morning and it always ended the same way. Madara would reveal that she was in fact dead, Naruto would deny, but after a few hours he would succumb to the rage inducing truth. Afterwards he would need to be restrained and sedated where they could start the process all over again the next day. The prison Madara had designed for Naruto had been truly unique. Its main purpose was of course to keep someone in, but also it sapped away chakra from its prisoner, using that chakra to further strengthen itself. As if that wasn't enough Naruto's own nine-tails chakra constantly leaked from Naruto, consistently reinforcing the cell.

Once the daily routine between Madara and Naruto had run its course, Madara went to check on how the progress of locating the eight tails was going. Madara could not wait to locate the eight tails. The idea of catching the last tailed beast made him shake with excitement. Finally his plans would be complete, assuming Danzo kept up his end of the deal. All Madara had to do was keep Danzo believing in the nine tails power and he was as obedient as a school boy.

The sedatives were beginning to take hold as Naruto dreamily watched Madara walk away from his cell. He smiled, a stupid broad grin towards one of his prison guards and before his eyes fell shut he was sure that he'd seen the guard begin to laugh at him. That's ok though, Naruto thought as he eyed his makeshift prison bed.

His hole was getting deeper.

* * *

A/N: This was by far my favorite chapter, but also the hardest to write. I wanted to make sure that the first signs of Sasuke's interest were perfect and stayed as true to his character as possible. Also, I'm sorry for the grammar mistakes, my beta is having finals right now so i proofread as best i could (which is kinda like a 2 year old driving a semi =/)

Also i want to say thank you to ImCutePoison for all the reviews. If it wasn't for you i don't know when this chapter would have gotten released.

Thank you to everyone else that reads my story I am truly grateful to all your input (even the negative ones!)

Lastly, I just want everyone to know that Chapter 9 might take a while due to class load and everything, but I will try my best to get it out as soon as possible.

As always I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

-Tij


	9. IX

wThe sound of the explosion temporary deafened the five ninjas that anxiously scattered in retreat from the near fatal blast. Just as Hinata had planned, the small window of silence left each of the invading ninjas open and defenseless. She spotted one of them beginning to form seals with his hands. He would be her first priority.

Hinata kept her pace quick and silent as she closed the distance between herself and her first target. The unsuspecting ninja hadn't even finished his technique before Hinata's kunai tore through his left hamstring. The shock from his injury and the fear of another unseen attack caused the ninja to flail his arm backwards in a wild, defensive swing. He hit nothing but air, and Hinata capitalized with a quick stab into the soft tissue underneath his right shoulder blade. The deafening effect wore off just in time for the other four ninjas to hear the screams of their fallen comrade. One down, four to go.

Byakugan active, Hinata observed the tactical formation of the four remaining ninjas. Two teams of two. One ninja set traps the other made clones. After they were done all four ninja hid themselves close to their clone counterparts. Standard jounin tactics; set traps and wait for the other guys to make a mistake. Hinata thought about her next move. Perhaps if she could signal Sasuke in some way then he and Kakashi could coordinate some sort of simultaneous attack. She was sure those two had already begun setting up something to help her take out the rest of the enemies. She looked over towards the entrance of the cave and Hinata's jaw just dropped. Sasuke and Kakashi hadn't moved an inch. They were just standing there arms crossed, watching as she impossibly tried to eliminate four jounins on her own.

Sasuke's heart was racing. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been so tense. He studied Hinata's every move. She took down the first of the five man cell with relative ease, rolling his eyes when his screams filled the air. She didn't kill him. She still wouldn't kill unless she had to. He silently reprimanded her for that, even though he had shown the same mercy during his training with Orochimaru. His fingernails dug deeply into the sides of his arm. He unconsciously tensed and relaxed the muscles in his legs, alert and more than prepared to intervene should the situation called for it

The nails digging into his skin went unnoticed, but the subtle way Sasuke inched forward with every second both intrigued and amused Kakashi. Why was he so worried? Kakashi pondered as he casually watched the new and vastly improved Hinata dismantled the five highly trained ANBU ninjas.

"Sasuke I didn't know you were giving training lessons. Maybe later you could show an old man so new tricks?" Kakashi taunted.

"Not interested in teaching the elderly," Kakashi's words activated Sasuke internal reset button. His hands went slack, falling down to his sides and his legs relaxed. For the first time since the explosion Sasuke took his eyes off of Hinata and over to Kakashi.

"Why are you here?" Sasuke bluntly asked his former sensei.

"Hm, this might not be the best time. Hinata seems to have progressed quite well in her time with you." Kakashi deflected, turning the conversation back to Hinata which forced Sasuke to sneak to look at how well she was doing. Even though his mouth was covered Kakashi still fought hard against his jaw muscles to hold back the large grin that was begging to be shown.

Sasuke was tense and apprehensive, even though he fought hard to hide it. The hints were subtle, but they were there. Even more fun, Sasuke was protective of Hinata. Naruto's death must have really affected him. Sasuke must see his best friend in Hinata. It was a different side of Sasuke that Kakashi didn't even know existed.

Hinata dodged to the left, avoiding a kunai that instead found a target in the tree that was behind her. She had only taken out one of the five ANBU intruders and now she was surrounded by three of the remaining four. Hinata frantically scanned area. There was an ANBU at her twelve, three, and six o'clock, and at her back there was a tree. She sighed, there weren't a lot of options, but she figured she could get one more before she needed to retreat.

At least now she had an exit strategy. The tree behind her provided an interesting distraction, if she could pull it off. Hinata stepped back from the three ninjas. She circled the tree that was behind her, feigning a retreat. As expected, the three ninjas choose that as the perfect time to strike, and when the first ninja moved to attack, Hinata surprised him, cutting the tenketsus in his attacking arm. It was a small victory that came with a nearly lethal price. Now the other two ninja's were in position to finish the job that the first had started. Again Hinata was surrounded. It was time to escape to Kakashi and Sasuke's location. Hinata tossed two kunai at the ninjas. They blocked the half hearted attack but their defense left enough time for Hinata to begin spinning.

_Hakkeshou Kaiten._ The divination whirl sent all three of the ninjas jumping back in retreat, but the ninjas were never Hinata's target. The sharp crack as the base of the tree trunk snapped under the pressure of Hinata's Hakkeshou Kaiten echoed through the rest of the forest. The large tree clumsily crashed down to the ground below. In the calamity Hinata made a break for the tree line. The disadvantage to such a large distraction was that she lost sight of her three pursuers while she was escaping. A few moments of running as fast as Hinata's legs would take her and she was out of the clearing, making a beeline straight for Sasuke and Kakashi who were still just standing around.

"Ah-Ah-A-choo!" Kakashi sneezed. He nonchalantly scanned the area. His eyes pausing momentarily; once on a spot in the woods to his right and the other at the falling tree that was straight ahead of him. Crouching low, Kakashi began doodling in the dirt in front of his feet.

Sasuke just ignored Kakashi, only glancing down once to take notice of the idiotic illustration that Kakashi decided to doodle to pass the time in the middle of a battle. Sasuke turned back to the battle just in time to see Hinata break past the forest edge, heading for the two of them. She must have done all that she could and the impromptu lumberjacking must have been her escaping. He would wait until she got to them and briefed them on who was left. That familiar approving smile threatened his lips, but the urge was short live as he caught a glimpse of the sun reflecting off of the projectile that was speeding towards Hinata.

"Shit," Sasuke muttered, quickly bending down to grab the kunai that Kakashi was using to draw in the ground and throw it.

The clang of metal to Hinata's left side caught her attention in time to see the two kunai collide with each other. Suddenly, Sasuke appeared, his arm knocking away the ANBU ninja's follow up attack. If the ANBU was surprised, his lifeless mask hid it well. The ninja reached for the ninjato, preparing to strike, but Sasuke was faster. I swift knee to the solar plexus immobilized the ninja, and Sasuke followed up by kicking the ANBU ninja away, sending him flying backwards.

_Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu._ Outmatched and completely overpowered, the flying ANBU ninja was engulfed by Sasuke's fireball.

"Thank you Sasuke," Hinata began.

"Next time pay more attention to who is attacking." Sasuke reprimanded curtly, "I'm not here to protect you. I'd rather-"

"I don't need your protection." Hinata cut Sasuke off, not bothering to turn around a return the icy glare she was sure he was giving to her.

Two of his men were down. There was only he and two others left in their squad. Hyo admitted to himself that this mission was not going as well as he'd planned. He hadn't expected Kakashi to be so perceptive. He wouldn't have imagined that the last Uchiha would interfere with Konoha business. Most of all he never dreamed that a Hyuga, a member of one of the most prominent families in the Leaf to attack a member of the ANBU squad. Hell, wasn't her cousin ANBU?

The battle seemed to be sliding downhill, he was already down two men and even worse he lost Kakashi's whereabouts a few moments ago. With an unpredictable element like the Copy Cat ninja running about Hyo didn't really see too many battle options available for him. He needed to do something about Hinata and Sasuke. Unfortunately, that meant he would have to admit that these three ninjas were more than he could handle without using _that _jutsu. Rolling his eyes behind the veil of the ANBU mask, Hyo swallowed his pride and finished the seals that he'd spent his entire time in hiding preparing.

Hyo was now down to one other man and himself. Another of Hyo's men fell after receiving a brutal _Hakke Rokujuyon Sho._ The last remaining ANBU ninja was not a fool. He stood in front of the Uchiha and the Hyuga ready to surrender. With Hyo no where in sight the ANBU ninja dropped his hands.

"I surrender." He said falling down to his knees. Danzo was going to kill him anyway. Or have him killed. It was no matter. Hell, Hyo probably ran too. If Hyo was smart enough to just run away then there was no harm in him trying to preserve his own life too. Besides it's not like they were an enemy village. They were all from the same-

Sasuke knocked out the surrendering ninja. There was still one left and last thing they needed was for the Root ninja to get some courage in the middle the fight. Sasuke activated the Sharingan. He had no idea where Kakashi went, but he and Hinata were standing out in the open. They were far from being defenseless, but Sasuke was careful, he needed to be ready just in case the leader was a lot more skilled than his subordinates.

"He's coming." Kakashi whispered. Suddenly appearing in between Hinata and Sasuke. Rather than ask questions, the three just waited silently.

A few moments passed before Hyo appeared in front of Hinata. As far as he knew she was the weakest, and would be the easiest to pick off first. His sudden presence surprised her and Hyo used that shock to his advantage, swiping horizontally across her midsection with his ninjato. But Hinata parried, redirecting the blade in a wipe arc that missed her completely.

Hyo choose another target, choosing to fight Sasuke next. He vanished from in front of Hinata and reappeared in front of Sasuke's position, but Sasuke wasn't there.

"You Root ninjas are pathetic." Sasuke's voice came from behind Hyo. He was dead. He knew it before he heard the sound of Sasuke's katana as it was unsheathed. He knew before the corner of his eye caught a glimpse of the blade as it sped towards his neck. He thought he would last longer than this. Long enough for his ultimate jutsu to take effect. He had calculated the time wrong and now he would pay for his mistake with his life. He could feel the blade as it came in contact with his skin. But instead of slicing across his jugular, the sword just rested against there. Hyo quickly turned to see Sasuke frozen in place. He frantically looked over to the Hyuga and Kakashi who were also frozen in place. Hyo let out a sigh of relief. His ultimate technique had work.

_Tenkuu Dokuyaku Ninjutsu._ Just in the nick of time. Hyo carefully slide past Sasuke's katana blade. He was safe. His enemy trapped by his infamous poison air technique. Hyo just stood there for a moment drinking in the sight of the three petrified ninjas that were mere moments away from ending his life.

"I bet you didn't see that one coming Kakashi." Hyo gloated. He circled his rooted prey. Rage and vindication washed over his logical ninja training. Surely, Danzo wouldn't mind if Hyo eliminated a threat like Uchiha Sasuke for the sake of the village. The Hyuga would be just collateral damage, slain in the midst of battle but not before attacking two ANBU officers sent here to bring her back home.

Hyo pulled out his ninjato, raising it high in air. Its tip was pointed directly in front of Hinata. Hyo brought the blade down as hard as he could, but the sharp metal never reached its intended target.

"I thought your orders were to kill me, not her?" Kakashi asked.

Hyo was completely frozen in disbelief. Kakashi stood behind Hyo, holding his arms back, and preventing Hyo from finishing Hinata.

"H-How did you-?" Hyo began to ask. His voice quivered, stuttering over the seriousness of his current predicament. He had wasted too much charka on his poison air technique in order to cover the entire clearing. Hyo knew there was no way he could last in a battle against Kakashi. This time he really was dead.

"It doesn't matter," Kakashi cut him off. The 'whys' and the 'hows' of Kakashi's escape were irrelevant. Hyo was going to kill Hinata, which in Kakashi's eye made him no different from the Rain ninjas that killed his students.

"Chidori..." His headband may have had the Leaf symbol, but they were far from comrades, in fact to Kakashi, Danzo and every member of Root were his enemies.

In the last few moments before lightening seared through his chest Hyo's arms went slack. He stopped struggling against his inevitable death He would have rather died in battle anyway. Failure was not an option in Root.

–

The effects of Hyo's technique wore off in after a minutes. Sasuke and Hinata woke up to Kakashi standing over them, his face buried in words of his favorite novel.

"What happened?" Sasuke asked as he looked around the clearing. All the ninjas were gone.

"It's a long story. For now, is there anything to eat?" Kakashi asked clutching his empty stomach.

The delicious smell of food preparation pervaded thought the hideout once again, as Hinata hustled to put something together for the three of them to eat. Only moments after Kakashi declared his hunger, Sasuke and Hinata's stomach demanded food as well.

"Mmm. Hinata I can see why Naruto never ran out of energy. He must have always been full."  
Kakashi complemented his former student's fiancée, his words turning her entire face pink.

"Thank you, Kakashi-sensei." Hinata responded with a deep bow.

Sasuke said nothing, instead choosing to eat quietly and listen as Hinata and Kakashi idly chit-chatted throughout what was now dinner. Hinata talked about her training with Sasuke, the reason why they were in Orochimaru's hideout, even about the men that had attacked them in the port town. Kakashi in turn gave her what little news he had on Konoha in his short visit. All in all, the dinner kind of reminded Kakashi of back home, eating take out at Sakura's apartment with her and Naruto. Kakashi had almost forgotten why he'd came. Luckly, Hinata returned the conversation to something more serious.

"Kakashi-sensei, what happened to the Root ninjas?" Hinata finally asked.

Kakashi didn't even bat an eye, "I killed them. All of them." Although he had proclaimed the deaths of the intruding ANBU members with a homely smile on his face, the malice in Kakashi's voice temporarily cut Hinata and Sasuke's ability to speak.

"B-B-But how did you escape from that jutsu that froze Sasuke and I?" Hinata stuttered on her question. She quickly glanced over to Sasuke, both checking to make sure that he wasn't staring at her angrily for stuttering and to confirm that he hadn't left her alone.

"Oh that, I was never there in the first place," Kakashi said lightheartedly, "Hyo must have been an earth element type. He dispersed tiny particles of poison throughout the air with his chakra. Luckily, the canine contract not only makes me really sensitive to smell, but I can tell when the air around me changes. After that I just made produced a clone and waited the effects kick in."

"You could have told me." Sasuke chimed in for the first time in the conversation.

"I did." Kakashi noted, "The message on the ground."

Come to think of it, his doodling did look like a dog choking himself.

"You call that a message?" Sasuke snorted back.

"Next time maybe you shouldn't focus so much on Hinata." Kakashi counted, effectively winning the exchange as Hinata turned around quickly to hide the pink tinge on her cheeks and Sasuke immediately changed the subject.

"Why are you here?" Sasuke demanded.

"Oh right," The worry-free feeling in the dinner room vanished as Kakashi learned close to Sasuke. "I have some information on what happened."

Sasuke and Hinata listened as Kakashi filled them in on everything that he knew.

–

Years of rigorous ninja training, countless undercover, covert missions and Neji still hadn't mastered the art of sneaking out of bed from under Shizune's arm. The single tap at his bedroom windows meant that there was something ANBU related that required his attention, but the moment he laid a finger on Shizune's arm, "Don't get it." she responded from her half sleep state.

"You know I have to." Neji attempted to appeal to her logic.

"No you don't. I haven't seen you in three days. There is nothing more important-" Shizune began but the sound of two taps on the window stopped her cold.

One tap meant urgent, two taps meant immediate danger. Both she and Neji jumped up from the bed. Shizune began to get dressed while Neji was briefed. When Neji returned he was wide-eyed and alert, scrambling to get his things and throwing Shizune her shoes, "We need to get to the Hokage now."

Tsunade mulled over the information she was just given, "Are you sure about this?" She asked Neji.

"Yes, I set four squads to serveil Danzo like you ordered. He lost most of them, but two of our men tracked him all the way to the hidden Rain village." Neji reported.

"So Danzo is working with the Akatsuki?" Tsunade contained her anger. Although Danzo was committing treason, she would need a lot more than the word of two ANBU members to turn the village elders against him. She needed a plan, something to-

"There is one more thing Hokage-sama..."

The village was in a state of uproar. Tsunade had called for an emergency meeting from the entire village. The meeting wasn't such a bad thing. Most of the villagers had been through this kind of thing before. What made this particular meeting so cumbersome was the time at which it was held. It had already been midnight when Neji received the taps to his window. After receiving a full debriefing from Neji, Tsunade had ordered that every ninja in the village attend the emergency meeting that had to take place right now and she made it crystal clear that this was not a request.

Nearly an hour passed by before the doors of the meeting room finally closed, signifying that everyone was there and it was time to begin. Tsunade scanned over the crowd, letting the sleep, weariness and alcohol pass from everyone's system. Now that she was sure everyone was alert enough to listen to what she had to say she began.

"I'm declaring war against Amegakure."

–

"So she was targeted, by someone in Konoha?" Sasuke asked. His voice was calm and distant. He stared past Kakashi. Focusing his vision on a single point with such intensity Hinata was sure he would bore a hole through it.

"Sasuke you need to be-" Kakashi didn't even finish his sentence. Sasuke got up from the dinner table and left the room. Hinata went after him, but Kakashi held her arm back.

"He needs some time to himself." he advised, but it was more than just that. It was a warning. Sasuke blinded with rage was too dangerous to be around. When he's like this, he would not distinguish between friend or foe.

After the somber dinner, Hinata directed Kakashi to the library where they both searched for the book for a few hours until Hinata declared that she was going to bed.

"Good night Kakashi-sensei" Hinata bid Kakashi as she left the library.

The hours passed, but Hinata found it impossible to sleep. She was riddled with mixed feelings of guilt, sadness, and betrayal. She knew that Sasuke wanted revenge for Sakura's death, but up until tonight her death was more like collateral damage. The knowledge that she had been Pein's target all along derailed their hatred. They had been hunting Sakura's killer for all the wrong reasons and that knowledge left the pain she was feeling hollow. Hinata felt like she had been mourning a person who was not yet dead while ignoring the actual deceased. The feeling left her sick and uneasy. Why was Sakura the target? What did Akatsuki hope to gain from this?

Restless, Hinata began to pace around her room. It wasn't long before she found herself out pacing the halls. She was completely lost in thought, so much so that the sound of something breaking startled her more than it should have. The sound came from Sasuke's room.

"Is everything alright Sasuke?" Hinata called out, but there was no answer.

Resisting the urge to sneak a peek with her Baykugan, Hinata called out to Sasuke again, but she got nothing back. She turned the handle. It was unlocked so she cracked it just enough to whisper into the pitch black room.

"Sasuke?" Hinata called out.

"I heard you the first time." Sasuke finally answered back. Hinata mistook his calmness for an invitation and she slid into the dark room closing the door behind her.

"Listen, Sasuke," Hinata started to say, but Sasuke cut her off. He had moved from the far side of the room. Now he was standing in front of her, his voice down to barely a whisper.

"I'm going to kill Danzo." Sasuke began.

"I know." Hinata admitted both to herself and to Sasuke. She looked up to where his voice was coming from. The darkness in the room was as thick as oil, all either of them had was the sounds of their voices.

"I'm going to kill him, and everyone else that tries to stop me." Sasuke continued. His voice was closer than it had been a moment ago.

"I-I know." Again Sasuke voiced her fears. She knew that he was going to come after Danzo next and she knew what that would mean to the both of them.

"You are a ninja of Konoha. You need to go back home with Kakashi." Sasuke concluded.

"No." Hinata had spent the last few hours tossing, turning and pacing around trying to figure out just what she was going to say when Sasuke turned her away. If she left now, the next time they saw each other they would be enemies. Sasuke would have killed Pien and moved on to his next target, making him an enemy of the entire village. He was going to toss her aside simply to keep her out of trouble. Hinata realized it was that uncharacteristic protectiveness that Hinata disliked the most about Sasuke.

"I don't need your…" Hinata's voice trailed off.

Somewhere in the midst of their short conversation the distance between Hinata and Sasuke disappeared. Neither of them said a word, and the silence amplified the sounds of their deep, steady breathing. Sasuke's fingers laced into hers as Hinata's other hand landed softly against his back. She couldn't see his movements. The pitch blackness masked the way his eyes searched for some surety in her face. Instead there was only the warm tickle of his breath against her shoulders and the caress of his fingers as the grazed along her palm. His other hand glided across the side of her stomach, underneath her shirt and around to the smalls of her back. Gently he pulled Hinata closer, taking in the scent of her skin as his lips brushed past her neck and rested on the side of her jaw.

Hinata breathed out a soft moan. For the first time ever she yearned for Sasuke's lips to find hers. Sasuke just held her for a moment just letting Hinata chest press against his as her breathing grew deeper.

Just as soon as it began, it ended. Sasuke pulled himself off of Hinata.

"Good night Hinata." He whispered.

Hinata said nothing, just standing there in the dark room trying to hide the confusion, guilt and pain from her face. It didn't matter that the room was pitch black. She knew Sasuke was standing there. Close enough that if she reached out she could pull him back to her, but far enough to convey his desire to be left alone. Saying nothing Hinata simply left the room.

–

"Hokage-sama you cannot be serious? War? With Amegakure? With Akatsuki?" One of the village elders questioned.

The meeting had been going on for over half an hour. Most of which was spent listening to all the reasons why war was simply not an option. Tsunade listened, waiting for her chance to speak as each of the village's clan heads gave their opinions.

"Hokage-sama, perhaps if you could tell us more about this decision then we can understand your reasoning behind it." The room fell silent. The shock of Danzo speaking in agreement with the Hokage left many mouths too far on the ground to speak. Danzo gave a quick apathetic scan to the room before turning his eyes back to Tsunade.

"Thank you Danzo-sama." Tsunade said with as much sweetness as she could muster. She knew Danzo had his reasons for going along with war, but she had no idea why. Did he know that Naruto wasn't dead? Or perhaps he was planning some kind of takeover. Nevertheless, Tsunade had other things to worry about. She stood from her chair, clearing her throat before she began.

"We have reason to believe that the ninja of the Rain village has something to do with the deaths of Naruto and Sakura." The room remained quiet as Tsunade took in a deep breath, "More specifically, Pien the leader of the Rain village is who killed Naruto and Sakura."  
The room burst into whispers. There were some ninjas who had heard, others who hadn't. Either way everyone in the room knew now, but the proclamation did little to sway the village clan leaders, most of which already knew the news.

"What happened to the Jinchuriki and Mrs. Haruno was tragic, we all lost two of our most valuable jounins. However, I cannot condemn this entire village simply because you cannot bury the dead Tsunade." This time it was Hiashi who spoke. His daughter had lost the most of all this and now she has gone missing. His worry gave conviction to his words. "I cannot—"

"I will not bury someone who is not dead." Tsunade cut into Hiashi's words. Now the room was silent. So silent Tsunade was sure she could her Danzo's knuckles tighten around the handle of his cane.

"Naruto is alive and he is in Amegakure. I'm going to get Naruto. Who's with me?" Tsunade concluded.

In the end no one said a word of protest. Ninja after ninja rose to their feet until there wasn't a filled chair in the entire room. That settled things, in two days time Konoha would officially be at war.

* * *

A\N: Sorry for this release taking so long. School, work, and stuff. Well I hope you all enjoy it!


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